On Easter Monday, April 21st, 2025, Pope Francis passed away at age 88 in Vatican City. After serving as the head of the Catholic Church for twelve years, he died of a stroke and consequent cardiac arrest. 

His Requiem Mass, a memorial service of the Catholic Church for the souls of the departed, took place on April 26th. Subsequently, a nine-day mourning period for the Church commenced.

Millions of people worldwide have come together to grieve and pay their respects in the wake of Pope Francis’s passing, with over 250,000 people attending a service in Vatican City. Several nations have also declared a period of national mourning.

On the 7th of May 2025, the papal conclave met to determine Pope Francis’s successor. After taking an oath of secrecy, 33 Catholic cardinals convened in the Sistine Chapel and were isolated from the outside world until a two-thirds majority consensus was achieved. After the first day, cardinals could vote up to four times a day with secret ballots. 

As this significant event unfolded and as they made their choice, crowds of the public gathered outside the chapel’s entrance, awaiting their decision. Positioned outside the church, there are two stoves; black smoke indicates there has been no successful election yet, and white smoke signifies that a new pope has indeed been chosen. 

On the 9th of May, 2025, the second day of the Conclave, white smoke emerged. 69-year-old Cardinal Robert Prevost from Chicago, who served as a bishop in Peru, was elected as the new Pope Leo XIV. He is also the first American pope in history. CNN’s Vatican correspondent revealed Pope Francis thought highly of him and saw him as a capable leader. His views are progressive, sharing his predecessor’s views on the environment, the impoverished, and immigrants, and he is expected to soon build on Pope Francis’s reforms.