VATICAN CITY -- Catholics around the world are rejoicing Thursday afternoon as white smoke came pouring out of the Sistine Chapel chimney just after 12:06 p.m. EDT.

Sixty-nine-year-old American Cardinal Robert F. Prevost has been selected the 267th leader of the Catholic Church and has adopted the papal name of Leo XIV.

The election of a new pope indicates that at least 89 of the 133 cardinals were able to agree on Prevost. 

Pope Leo was born on the south side of Chicago at Mercy Hospital and lived in Dolton, Ill. at E. 141st Pl. for a time and attended St. Mary of the Assumption Church on E. 137th Street.

The new pope was also an altar boy and attended seminary high school.

His mother had Spanish ancestry and was a librarian also known to be a good cook.

His father had Italian and French ancestry and served as a catechist at church.

Pope Leo graduated with bachelor's degree in mathematics from Villanova in 1977 and was ordained in 1982 with a doctorate in canon law at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas Rome.

He spent a couple decades in Peru doing missionary work and speaks English, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese.

Several leaders from the region have released statements regarding the selection of Chicago-born Pope Leo XIV.