Although the film “Conclave” is fictional, it provides a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the secret process of selecting a new pope. But last year’s real-life conference was just as dramatic, with plenty of plot twists, political battles between the cardinals, and surprising results.
A new book reveals how Pope Leo XIV was elected in May 2025 as the first American-born pope in the Catholic Church’s 2,000-year history. The book’s authors tell in unprecedented detail how Cardinal Robert Prevost, an unassuming Augustinian from Chicago, did not attract widespread attention as a likely candidate even as he quietly garnered support from other cardinals as the conclave began.
Gerald O’Connell, Vatican correspondent for the New York-based Catholic magazine America, and Elisabetta Pique, correspondent for Argentina’s La Nación and a CNN contributor for the 2025 conference, explain how Italy’s leading candidate disappeared from the fray, revealing the breakdown of the vote inside the Sistine Chapel. They also report how Prevost’s selection surprised many, including Vatican officials. One cardinal said that for years, a U.S. pope seemed impossible because of America’s “military, economic and cultural power.”
Mr. O’Connell and Mr. Piqué, the husband and wife reporting team, were longtime friends of Pope Francis, had their two children baptized in Argentina when he was still a cardinal, and later married the couple.
The book “The Election of Pope Leo XIV: Pope Francis’ Last Surprise” is based on interviews with numerous cardinals.
Using these sources, the authors describe the battles that took place within the College of Cardinals in the tense days leading up to the conclave: Should they vote for the pope to continue Francis’ legacy and reforms, or should they change course? Efforts to elect a pope who would take a different direction than Francis, as Mr. O’Connell and Mr. Piquet had planned by contributing their own diary-style entries to the book, were thwarted. Leo is different in style from his predecessor and is still somewhat puzzling, but in a broad sense it could be called Francis’ choice.
Here are some takeaways from the new book.
O’Connell reported that in the first round, Hungarian Cardinal Péter Erde received the most votes. Mr. Erde is a prominent church lawyer and the choice of conservatives. O’Connell said support for him was well organized but not necessarily widespread. In that first vote, he wrote, “more than 30 candidates received votes, but only three received between 20 and 30 votes,” the other two candidates being Cardinal Robert Prevot and Pietro Parolin, secretary of state of the Holy See and Italy’s leading candidate. However, in the next two votes, support quickly shifted to Prevost, and Erde lost support. O’Connell said Parolin was the runner-up after receiving 108 votes on the fourth ballot, electing the first American pope. The book also reveals that one cardinal accidentally pasted two ballots together, forcing him to vote a fourth time. (The same thing happened at the 2013 conference).
The conclave is a serious, spiritual process in which cardinals abandon all electronic devices and disconnect from the world before voting in front of a stunning fresco of Michelangelo’s Last Judgment. However, the book suggests that not everything always went as planned. O’Connell wrote that the first day’s voting was delayed because security officials received a mobile phone signal inside the Sistine Chapel. One of the “older cardinals” noticed that he had a cell phone in his pocket and handed it over, a scene O’Connell described as “unimaginable even in a movie.” Then another problem emerged, the book says. Without telephones to alert them, some cardinals almost overslept in their rooms at Casa Santa Marta, the guesthouse where they stay during the conclave. The Vatican handed each participant a free alarm clock so they could wake up and reach the Sistine Chapel on time. Some cardinals also complained that they had to escort young cardinal deacons to the outdoor toilets because there were no toilets in the chapel. “I feel like I’m back in kindergarten,” one person told the author.
After Francis’ death, in the run-up to the conclave, two cardinals were talked about as the front-runners: Cardinal Parolin, the Vatican’s chief diplomat, and Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, head of the Vatican’s Evangelization Office. Parolin was promoted as a moderate and diplomatic figure who would restore “order” after a turbulent period, according to the Francis, Piquet and O’Connell report. But he lacked grassroots experience in the Catholic community. While Parolin worked closely with Francis, one of his supporters, Cardinal Beniamino Stella, surprised his fellow cardinals with a speech at a meeting attacking Francis’ major reforms. The authors reported on this speech to the conclave, which they say had a negative impact on Parolin’s candidacy. Parolin was described as lacking “charisma” and “disconnecting” with young parishioners, a situation made worse by his poor performance at Masses, which are attended by large numbers of young people. Although Tuggle is charismatic and hails from the Philippines, which has the world’s largest Catholic population, he was not considered powerful enough to rule, the book said. He also came under intense social media attacks that damaged his candidacy.
The authors claim that “more than 20” cardinals secretly recognized Cardinal Prévost as the most suitable candidate for the papacy. They wrote that they were impressed by his humble and understated style and felt he was best placed to carry on Francisco’s legacy. His missionary experience in Peru, and his broader international experience, were of great importance.
Previously, it was widely accepted that cardinals would not choose the American pope because of America’s global political and economic influence. However, Pique reported that Mr. Prevost was considered “the least American of Americans,” and that Latin American cardinals felt that “even though he is a ‘gringo, (he) is one of us.”
Pope Francis vouched for Leo as a candidate
Francis quietly promoted his successor and ensured that he was the candidate. “Pope Francis clearly had his sights set on him,” Piquet wrote. It was the late pope who paved the way for Prevost’s candidacy by appointing him Bishop of Chiclayo in Peru and then taking him to Rome to head one of the Vatican’s most important departments responsible for appointing bishops. In this high-ranking role, Leo worked closely with cardinals around the world, a sign of the confidence Francis had in him. The two had regular one-on-one meetings during which “they certainly discussed church leadership issues that went beyond the immediate topic (the appointment of future bishops),” Pique said, but keen observers noted that Prevost had accompanied Francis on his last two trips abroad.
An ancient election process steeped in ritual and tradition, the conference was able to produce results decisively and quickly, even though results were still communicated by signal. It also retains the ability to surprise, as shown by O’Connell and Piqué.
The Election of Pope Leo XIV: The Last Surprise of Pope Francis will be published in English by Orbis Books on March 25, 2026.
