Prevost, still under 70, is a “young” pope with the possibility of a long pontificate. The conclave didn’t choose a bridge, it chose direction.

The European Evangelical Alliance also emphasises in a statement that “true spiritual unity is found only in the biblical Gospel”.

What is it that turns news professionals accustomed to questioning political and religious leaders into mere ‘fans’ when they travel to Rome to meet the new pontiff?

Headlines the world over last Friday announced the new pope, Leo XIV. Headlines 75 years ago on May 10, 1950, announced a new audacious plan for peace: ‘France takes the nations by surprise’, ‘Schuman bomb’.

Devotion to the Virgin Mary is the true bond between all popes and even the glue that holds Roman Catholicism together.

Presented as Pope Leo XIV, he was an Augustinian missionary in Peru for 40 years. He holds degrees in mathematics and theology and was appointed by Pope Francis to oversee the selection process for new bishops.

New and old. These two words describe Pope Leo XIV, newly elected by the conclave as head of the Roman Catholic Church.