Survivors say Pope Leo must commit to transparency in investigations of priests accused of sexual abuse. His record on doing so in past years has some worried.

The Catholic Church has a new pope, and he’s the first American to hold the role. White smoke appeared around 10 a.m. MDT on Thursday, signaling that the 133 cardinals sequestered in the Sistine Chapel had chosen Pope Francis’ successor.

Omaha native Blase Cupich is back in the States after attending the conclave in Rome last week. He's one of the 251 cardinals in the world. Sign up for our Newsletters Cupich spent six years working with Robert Prevost,

In one of Chicago’s south suburbs, while other boys were playing cops and robbers, the future Pope Leo XIV would pretend to hold Mass in the basement of his family’s small brick home, reading from scripture and distributing disk-shaped candy wafers to his two older brothers.

White smoke billowed from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel and the great bells of St. Peter's Basilica rang out on Thursday, signaling that a new pope—the 267th leader of the Catholic Church—had been chosen on the second day of the conclave.

It was the most electric thing I have ever experienced inside the walls of a Catholic church,” one protester recalls.

News that the global Catholic church would get its first-ever U.S.-born pope was welcomed by Catholics across the ideological spectrum in Pope Leo XIV’s homeland, raising the question of whether he might be able to ease some of the deep divisions

Last week was quite special for the estimated 1.2 billion Catholics around the world when white smoke billowed across St. Peter’s Square, telling the world that the conclave of cardinals united behind one man to be St.