Cardinal Robert Prevost was named the new head of the Catholic Church on Thursday, taking the name Leo XIV. He is the first American pope in the church's 2,000-year history.
White smoke billowed from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel earlier to signal a successor to Pope Francis had been elected. The conclave of cardinals had gathered on Wednesday to choose the new leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics in a centuries-old ritual.
Pope Leo, 69, is a Peruvian-American prelate who was born in Chicago, Illinois. He joined the priesthood in 1981 and studied canon law at the Pontifical Saint Thomas Aquinas University in Rome. He was sent to Peru in 1988, where he served in a variety of church positions.
The new Pope was also twice elected prior general, or top leader, of the Augustinian religious order, the 13th-century order founded during the papacy of Innocent IV for friars seeking to follow the Rule of St Augustine from 400 CE. The previous pontiff, Pope Francis, who died on April 21, moved him from the Augustinian leadership back to Peru in 2014 to serve as the administrator and later archbishop of Chiclayo. He received Peruvian citizenship in 2015.
In 2023, Pope Leo came to serve as the head of the church's Dicastery for Bishops, which gave him oversight of the selection of new bishops, one of the most powerful positions in the Vatican. That same year, he was also named as the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, where nearly 40 per cent of the world's Catholics live.
The new Pope is viewed as an overall centrist, though he has expressed support for progressive ideas such as ordaining women.
Out of the 266 popes who have led the Catholic Church since it was founded, only a handful have come from outside Europe. Pope Francis was the first pontiff to come from the Americas, having been born in Argentina.
"This election is historic for a number of reasons," Tobias Winright, professor of moral theology at St Patrick’s Pontifical University in Ireland, told The National, pointing out that not only is he American, but he is also a member of the Augustine Order.
"The name that he’s selected, Leo XIV, I believe indicates a commitment to continuing the developments in Catholic social teaching and ethics that Pope Leo XIII inaugurated in 1891 with his encyclical Rerum Novarum, 'On the Condition of Labour,' during a similarly tumultuous time in the world with regard to economic and social justice."
Mr Winright added that as he is regarded as a moderate, he hopes the new Pope will "build bridges and promote more progress towards establishing a better approximation of and witness to God’s will for justice and peace in our world".
US President Donald Trump congratulated the Pope following the announcement.
“It is such an honour to realise that he is the first American Pope,” the President wrote on his Truth Social platform. “What excitement, and what a Great Honor for our Country. I look forward to meeting Pope Leo XIV. It will be a very meaningful moment!”
Later, he said: "I was watching it and they said, he's from America. I said, that's great."
Pope Leo was not considered a frontrunner for the papacy due to his relative youth and inexperience, as well as his country of origin. The divisive rhetoric from the Trump administration has alienated many allies, and the Catholic Church is not immune to the global political climate.
"I don't see an issue with him being American. Every American is not Donald Trump," Wadie Abunassar, Co-ordinator of the Forum of Holy Land Christians, told The National. "He is a man of the Church. And the Church belongs to Jesus Christ."
Mr Abunassar added that whoever the pope is, he has an institution in the Catholic Church to help and guide him. "In the US, there are many people who follow the Catholic Church and ultimately the nationality does not matter much," he said.
Meanwhile, Mr Winright reflected on the decision to choose Pope Leo in the context of his predecessor.
"He is probably the right person to follow Pope Francis," Mr Winright explained. "It sends a message that the US, the Global South and the church have something more hopeful and significant than what is being represented by President Trump and his supporters, Catholic or not."
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
