TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Catholics across the world and in Tampa Bay are celebrating the election of a new pope on Thursday.

Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, 69, will be known as Pope Leo XIV, the Vatican announced.

Prevost is originally from Chicago, making him the first American pope in the history of the church. He said “Peace be with you” in his first words as pope, offering a message of peace and dialogue “without fear,” the Associated Press reported.

Catholics in Tampa Bay are also celebrating the occasion.

“May God bless our new Holy Father. I pray that his ministry will unite the human family in pursuit of peace and the common good of people of every race, religion, and language,” Bishop Gregory Parkes of the Diocese of St. Petersburg said in a statement.

Parkes marked the occasion by celebrating Mass at St. Petersburg Catholic High School on Thursday afternoon.

As cardinals deliberated in their conclave, Prevost had been a leading candidate except for his nationality. There had long been a taboo against a U.S. pope, given the geopolitical power already wielded by the United States in the secular sphere. But Prevost was seemingly eligible also because he’s a Peruvian citizen and lived for years in Peru, first as a missionary and then as an archbishop.

The crowd in St. Peter’s Square erupted in cheers, priests made the sign of the cross and nuns wept as the crowd shouted “Viva il papa!” after the white smoke wafted into the late afternoon sky at 6:07 p.m. Waving flags from around the world, tens of thousands of people waited to learn who had won.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.