Robert Prevost has been elected as the new Pope, taking the name of Leo XIV before appearing before adoring crowds in St Peter's Square.
"Peace be with you" were Pope Leo's first words as he addressed a crowd of thousands.
After thanking his predecessor Francis and praying for world peace, Leo said: "Evil will not prevail... We are all in the hands of God.
"Without fear, united hand-in-hand we go forward, we are disciples of Christ."
Robert Prevost has taken the name of Leo XIV
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Prevost has previously been in the limelight after clashing with US Vice President JD Vance.
Earlier this year he took to social media to slam Vance as "wrong" for his comments on Jesus's love.
Prevost wrote: "JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn't ask us to rank our love for others."
In another Twitter post, he linked to an article titled "Pope Francis' letter, JD Vance's 'ordo amoris' and what the Gospel asks of all of us on immigration."
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The new Pope slammed JD Vance as 'wrong'
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And just a few weeks ago, in his final tweet before being elected, he retweeted a post that said: "As Trump & Bukele use Oval to [laughing emoji] Feds’ illicit deportation of a US resident, once an undoc-ed Salvadorean himself, now-DC Aux +Evelio asks, “Do you not see the suffering? Is your conscience not disturbed? How can you stay quiet?”
This comes as Prevosts's predecessor, Pope Francis had been as outspoken as could be without naming names, when he criticised Vance in his February letter to US bishops.
In January, Vance had alluded to the concept of the correct reading of St Augustine’s notion of ordo amoris, the right ordering of love.
According to the Catholic convert, it was a “Christian concept” that love and compassion start with family, then extend to neighbours, then nation, and, last and least, reach fellow human beings as such.
Pope Francis met JD Vance just a day before his death
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However, Pope Francis replied with a letter to US bishops, instructing them that “Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and groups.
"In other words: the human person is not a mere individual, relatively expansive, with some philanthropic feelings!”
He added: "The true ordo amoris that must be promoted is that which we discover by meditating constantly on the parable of the ‘Good Samaritan’… that is, by meditating on the love that builds a fraternity open to all, without exception.”
