With more than 250 million Catholics, Africa is home to some of the world’s fastest-growing Catholic populations, according to this report. However, for over 1,500 years, the continent has often not been considered for Vatican leadership, the report says.
Popes have largely come from Italy, with a few others from France, Germany, and Portugal. Three have come from Africa Proconsularis, a Roman province (modern-day Tunisia), the report adds.
As tributes poured in for Pope Francis following his death last month, two African cardinals — Peter Turkson from Ghana and Robert Sarah from Guinea — were leading Black/African candidates who were seen as potential candidates to succeed him.
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But the two and other Black candidates missed out on Thursday as Robert Prevost was elected the first American pope in the 2,000-year history of the Catholic Church.
Prevost, who ministered in Peru and leads the Vatican’s powerful office of bishops, took the name Leo XIV.
He appeared on the loggia of St. Peter’s Square wearing the traditional red cape of the papacy as the crowds cheered and the white smoke billowed from the chimney, the Associated Press reported.
Prevost is the first pope to have been born in the United States. He is also a citizen of Peru, where he spent much of his life. A member of the Augustinian Order, Prevost is now the 267th Roman Catholic pontiff.
The 69-year-old was made a cardinal in 2023 and before he became pope, he helped advise the pope on appointment of bishops as the leader of the Vatican Dicastery for Bishops.
A Chicago native, Prevost is a graduate of Villanova University in Philadelphia, the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, and the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome.
President Donald Trump has since congratulated him on Truth Social, writing, “it is such an honor to realize that he is the first American Pope.”
Seventeen African cardinals participated in the exercise to elect the new head of the Catholic Church. These African cardinals represented countries including Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Madagascar, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, South Sudan, and Tanzania.
There were 133 cardinals under age 80 who were eligible to vote in the conclave Wednesday to choose a new leader.
A two-thirds majority is needed to be elected pope, and this means that if the number of electors holds at 133, the winner must secure 89 votes, according to AP.
The countries with the most electors are: Italy (17), United States (10), Brazil (7), France and Spain (5), Argentina, Canada, India, Poland and Portugal (4).
