Pope Leo XIV greets the crowd from the popemobile before a Holy mass for the beginning of his pontificate, in St Peter’s Square in the Vatican, on May 18, 2025. [AFP]. White smoke billowed from the Sistine Chapel chimney on the evening of May 8, 2025 after Cardinal Robert Prevost, 72, was elected the 267th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church. Taking the name Pope Leo XIV, the American prelate succeeds Pope Francis, who died last month at 88 after 12 years leading the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics. “I am humbled by this sacred responsibility,” Prevost said in his first…