His tally was rising with each round of voting, while support for the early front-runner—Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin—was stagnating. A realization weighed visibly on Prevost, said three cardinals who watched his reaction: He was on track to become the 267th pope of the global Catholic Church,

One cardinal who cast his ballot said the pope’s choice of the papal name Leo might signal a particular interest in workers’ rights.

To many, Pope Leo XIV seemed a different sort of American, a man who served the poor of Peru for decades, who spoke Spanish and Italian, and who was close to Pope Francis.