- 5/12/2025
David Muir reports from the Vatican after the historic election of the first American pope. Less than 24 hours after being introduced, Leo XIV entered the Sistine Chapel to celebrate his first mass and spent time with the faithful, giving out blessings; Terry Moran reports on what the other American cardinals say happened inside the conclave that made history; Gio Benitez has the latest after radar screens went black again at Newark Liberty Airport for about 90 seconds on Friday. Just last week a similar radar outage forced the airport to cancel and delay thousands of flights; and more on tonight’s broadcast of World News Tonight with David Muir.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Tonight, breaking news from the Vatican. For the first time, we hear from cardinals who were inside the conclave.
00:06What was it? Why did they choose the first American pope?
00:10And the moment the cardinal, born in Chicago, had his head in his hands, knowing he was about to become pope.
00:16Also tonight here, the major failure again at an American airport.
00:19The air traffic control computers suddenly going down, losing contact with passenger planes.
00:24First tonight, Pope Leo XIV, the first pope from the United States, celebrating his first mass here, back in the Sistine Chapel, where he was just hours before.
00:34Tonight, the cardinals who were in the chapel during the conclave.
00:38What happened when Cardinal Prevost from Chicago reached the two-thirds majority, the 89 votes needed, the scene inside the chapel.
00:46Also, what he said today during his mass, the message he's sending already.
00:50Tonight, back in the U.S., in Chicago, celebrating one of their own.
00:55Tonight here, you will hear from his brother.
00:57They played wordle and words with friends before the conclave.
01:01The bells ringing at Villanova, his alma mater.
01:03Catholic school children jumping with joy, learning the pope was not only American, but from their hometown.
01:09In that moment, the cardinal from Chicago suddenly put his head in his hands.
01:14The other major news this Friday night, another terrifying incident at Newark Airport.
01:19Air traffic control radar going dark again.
01:22Air traffic controllers losing communications with passenger jets.
01:25What's going on?
01:27Tonight, the U.S. and China and what President Trump is now signaling about his 145 percent tariffs on China.
01:34Will he reduce them and will they make a deal?
01:37The storm is hitting just as the weekend starts.
01:39The flood watch in the Northeast.
01:40Heavy rain for Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and New York.
01:44Tonight, the Soviet-era spacecraft launched back in 1972, hurtling toward Earth.
01:50What they're now saying about where it could go.
01:53And tonight, the remarkable images right here at the Vatican.
01:56As we prepare for a primetime special tonight, the American Pope.
02:02From ABC News, this is ABC World News Tonight with David Muir, reporting tonight from the Vatican.
02:12Good evening tonight from the Vatican.
02:14The first-ever American Pope celebrating his first Mass here, returning to the Sistine Chapel, where he was just hours before for the conclave.
02:21He, of course, was among the 133 cardinals who were electing the next Pope.
02:26And tonight here, for the first time, we hear from cardinals in that chapel and why they chose him.
02:31Less than 24 hours after being introduced as the new Pope, Leo XIV back in the Sistine Chapel to celebrate Mass with the cardinals who put their faith in him.
02:39The Pope began his first homily speaking in English and what he said to the cardinals who chose him.
02:45Tonight, the Vatican releasing this image from 24 hours ago, the newly elected Pope in solitary prayer, just before he was presented to the world.
02:52That powerful moment, stepping out onto the balcony, his name revealed, the first Pope from the United States.
02:58Tonight, the celebrations back in the U.S., his brothers and childhood friends who call him Rob.
03:03He is still close with his brothers, playing Wordle with one of his brothers not long before becoming the new Pope.
03:08Bells ringing at his alma mater, Villanova, and at many Catholic churches across the country.
03:13And the children, these students at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Academy in Chicago, learning of the first American Pope and that he was from their hometown.
03:21Tonight, for the first time, we hear about the moment that Cardinal, born in Chicago, put his head in his hands,
03:26knowing where the math was headed inside the conclave, that he was about to become Pope.
03:33Tonight, less than 24 hours after being named the first American Pope, Pope Leo XIV celebrating his first Mass.
03:41Returning to the Sistine Chapel, where he was just hours before, among the 133 Cardinals, who decided he was the one.
03:51As he returned to the Sistine Chapel, Pope Leo XIV, blessing the Cardinals who chose him, the Cardinals bowing to the new Pope.
04:01Conducting the Mass in Italian, but beginning his homily in English.
04:05I begin with a word in English.
04:07Saying this to the Cardinals from all over the world, who placed their faith in him.
04:13You have called me to carry that cross and to be blessed with that mission.
04:20And I know I can rely on each and every one of you to walk with me as we continue, as a church,
04:28as a community of friends of Jesus, as believers, to announce the good news, to announce the gospel.
04:34Those Cardinals delivering a surprise to the world, with their decision that came 24 hours, 21 minutes,
04:41after those doors closed at the Sistine Chapel, the conclave.
04:47The announcement, we have a Pope.
04:51Habemus Papam.
04:53And then, history made on the balcony over St. Peter's Square.
05:01The Cardinal born Robert Francis Prevost in Chicago, choosing to be called Pope Leo XIV, waving to the faithful.
05:10The world seeing the emotion clear on his face.
05:14His first words, peace be with you all.
05:16Tonight, the celebrations back in his hometown of Chicago, that began with the children who were watching,
05:26and Our Lady of Mount Carmel Academy.
05:33Cheering when they learned the first American Pope was from their town.
05:37Outside Philadelphia, bells ringing in Pope Leo's honor, at Villanova University, where he studied mathematics.
05:49Tonight, Pope Leo already spending time with the faithful.
05:52It was just hours after he appeared on that balcony.
05:54He was out in Vatican City, giving blessings, and visiting the palazzo where he lived, until he was named Pope.
06:01And tonight here, the new images from the Vatican, the official document attesting the acceptance of Pope Leo of his election.
06:09The name right there in Latin, Leo XIV.
06:12The Pope choosing the name Leo, widely believed in honor of Pope Leo XIII,
06:17who was focused on human dignity, the rights of workers, and the poor.
06:22Walking into today's Mass, Pope Leo choosing to wear simple black shoes, like his predecessor, Pope Francis,
06:28instead of the red shoes favored by Pope Benedict and others before him.
06:33And another question here, where will he live?
06:36Tonight, Italian media now reporting Pope Leo will continue to live at Santa Marta,
06:40where Pope Francis lived, at least for now,
06:43saying there is renovation work being done at the Grand Papal Apartment at the Apostolic Palace.
06:48Father John Walk and Father James Martin on the decision he'll have to make.
06:53Do you think he stays there, or does he move into the Grand Papal Apartment?
06:56I think he moves into the Grand Papal Apartment.
06:58So I think, I visited Pope Francis at Casa Santa Marta, and it's very simple, and he liked that.
07:02He liked being around people, but I don't know if I would want to live in a guesthouse for 20 years.
07:07I think I'd like something a little more permanent.
07:08So I would forgive him completely if he moved back.
07:11I suspect he'll be moving back, and partly it's because the truth is that having the Pope living with you,
07:17it's very awkward for the people who have to be there, and all sorts of security.
07:21Born in 1955 and growing up on Chicago's South Side,
07:25his brothers and his classmates knew this boy had a special relationship with God.
07:30He is now 69 and considered young, and could leave the Catholic Church for many years to come.
07:36Before he became Pope, he spoke of his relationship with Pope Francis and his views on the Church.
07:42It was just last August.
07:43He has a profound commitment to justice and charity and mercy.
07:51There are dynamic, life-giving experiences that do fill us with hope,
07:57and we have to learn to share that message with others.
08:00Depends on all of us.
08:01His work, transcending borders, serving the Church in the U.S., in Rome, and in Peru,
08:07where he was a missionary, a priest, and then a bishop in Chicleo, Peru.
08:11His focus, the poor.
08:18Tonight here, the images of Pope Leo back in 2014,
08:22singing Feliz Navidad with the youth ministry there.
08:25It was just 24 hours ago, children at the local Catholic school there,
08:32cheering as his name was announced.
08:34They considered him Pharaoh.
08:37Tonight, our Matt Rivers is in Peru.
08:39David, we're in the town of Chiclayo in northwest Peru,
08:42where Pope Leo spent decades working with the poor,
08:44preaching out of that cathedral there as bishop.
08:47The people of this town really see him as one of their own.
08:49They're thrilled he's now Pope.
08:51That sign there on City Hall says Papa Leon, Pope Leo, Chiclayo, blessed.
08:57And back here in Rome tonight,
08:59the Americans we have met during our time here,
09:02including the McManus family from Long Island.
09:04Here for their daughter's wedding,
09:06they had no idea they would witness history, too.
09:09They hope Pope Leo can unite.
09:12Do you hope he has impact back home in the United States, too?
09:14I would hope so now.
09:15I hope the United States sees this as a big plus for us
09:18and hope for that reason, to build those bridges
09:21and to bring those people back together.
09:23And when he said yesterday from the balcony,
09:25God loves everyone, did that land?
09:29Absolutely.
09:30Absolutely.
09:30It does.
09:31Absolutely.
09:32And if people didn't know that before,
09:34hopefully they heard that and they know it now.
09:36His brother Justin is studying at Villanova,
09:39where Pope Leo graduated.
09:41You're studying at Villanova.
09:42Yes, I am.
09:43And suddenly you learn that the Pope went to school at Villanova.
09:47Yeah.
09:48And when he stood up there
09:49and talked about building bridges with the world
09:51in this moment when there's so much conflict,
09:54what did that mean to you?
09:56You know, that just meant the world.
09:58Just to have him,
09:59someone who has that such stronger connection to me
10:02as a Villanova alumni,
10:05being able to hear him say those words
10:07definitely hit my heart directly.
10:11So it's really a touching moment for me.
10:13Their mother, optimistic after what she heard on that balcony.
10:17Kindness is key.
10:19So I think everyone just needs to be kind to each other.
10:22It means a lot.
10:23And if they keep pressing it, it's going to happen.
10:27You've got to be hopeful.
10:28You've got to believe.
10:29Hopeful for the American vote, then.
10:30Absolutely.
10:31The hope from so many Americans right here in Rome.
10:34And as I mentioned for the first time,
10:36we're hearing tonight from the cardinals
10:37who were in the conclave,
10:38what it was about that cardinal from Chicago
10:41who would reach that two-thirds majority and become Pope.
10:44And tonight, back in the U.S.,
10:45the celebrations for the boy
10:46who friends and family knew
10:48had a special connection to God growing up.
10:51Terry Moran, who is from Chicago,
10:53right here at the Vatican again tonight.
10:54Tonight, this native son of Chicago
10:57is now the leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics.
11:00Known to his brothers as Rob,
11:02to his friends as Bob, Pope Leo XIV.
11:05Formerly Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost,
11:07still plays Wordle in Wordsworth,
11:09friends with his brothers.
11:11He grew up here on East 141st Street in Dalton, Illinois,
11:15just across the line from Chicago's south side.
11:18And he attended Mass at St. Mary's of the Assumption,
11:20the youngest of three boys raised in a Catholic family.
11:23The future Pope seemed to be destined
11:25from a remarkably early age for a religious life.
11:29His brother, John.
11:30I think from the time he was five or six years old,
11:33he knew this was his fate.
11:35Not that he would be a Pope, that he would be a priest.
11:38As a boy, his brothers tell us,
11:39while they were playing cops and robbers,
11:41their little brother played priest,
11:43holding Mass using his mother's ironing board as an altar
11:46and Necco wafers for communion.
11:48He attended college at Villanova University in Pennsylvania,
11:51was ordained a priest in 1982,
11:53joining the Order of St. Augustine.
11:55Three years later, he became a missionary in Peru,
11:58working in poor, remote areas for two decades,
12:01eventually becoming a Peruvian citizen.
12:03After holding several posts in Rome,
12:06the future Pope was made a cardinal by Pope Francis
12:08just two years ago in 2023.
12:11This week, inside the conclave,
12:13the other American cardinals say that Prevost
12:15didn't advocate for himself in any big speech,
12:17but joined the conversations in small groups.
12:20A lot of dialogue occurred at mealtime, coffee break,
12:28those moments when you can engage one another.
12:32And then, on the second day of the conclave,
12:36when it was clear how the votes were going in the Sistine Chapel,
12:39he seemed anguished, says his friend, Cardinal Joseph Tobin,
12:42who calls him Bob.
12:43Then I walked back and I took a look at Bob,
12:47and, uh, because his name had been floating around.
12:52And he had his head in his hands.
12:55When he crossed the 89-vote threshold to be elected,
12:58a wave of applause rang through the Sistine Chapel.
13:01And when he accepted election, the anguish was gone.
13:04And then, when he accepted it,
13:07it was like he was made for it.
13:09The new Pope needed to choose a name.
13:11Chicago's Cardinal Blaise Cupich telling me about that moment.
13:13And he was asked, OK, what name do you take?
13:16And they said, Leo.
13:17And again, another applause, because that was a stunner, too.
13:20People were thinking, oh, Francis II, Paul, or John, or somebody else.
13:25But Leo.
13:26We knew we had something new here.
13:28In Chicago, they're bursting with pride.
13:31The Chicago Sun-Times dubbing Leo Da Pope.
13:34Da Pope. We loved seeing that today.
13:36Terry Moran back with us here at the Vatican.
13:38Really something, Terry, to listen to these cardinals
13:40who were inside the conclave,
13:42and to hear about him putting his head in his hands,
13:44sensing the weight of the role that was soon coming.
13:48It is an awesome responsibility, David.
13:51But the conclave acted so quickly,
13:53clearly because the cardinals believed he is ready,
13:56if anyone can be.
13:57Cardinal Tobin specifically praising Pope Leo's decisiveness,
14:01saying, quote,
14:02he listens, and then he acts.
14:04It's a lot of courage, unquote.
14:06David?
14:08It's an extraordinary story.
14:10Terry Moran tonight.
14:10Terry, thank you.
14:11And Pope Leo may be from the south side of Chicago,
14:14but his work with the church took him to Rome
14:16and to Peru for so many years.
14:18And from the balcony right here behind me,
14:20he promised to push for unity and to build bridges.
14:23So tonight, James Longman,
14:24with the faithful Americans
14:25and people from all over the world
14:27who hope Pope Leo can unite.
14:29Pope Leo sent some important messages at his first Mass as Pope,
14:34showing the world he knows how to walk delicate divides.
14:38Soon after we heard Leo had made history,
14:40we bumped into Cardinal Bo, the Archbishop of Yangon.
14:43Are you excited to have the first American Pope?
14:45Yes, good day, good day.
14:47So that he can, he can...
14:49Build a bridge?
14:51Build a bridge and fight with Trump.
14:53Fight with Trump?
14:54Trump.
14:55Or can we have a conversation, dialogue with Trump?
14:58A dialogue now in many languages.
14:59An American Pope, no, my joy is that, yeah,
15:02at least for the first time we have a Pope
15:04who is fluent in English and Spanish.
15:08But as Leo says he wants to build bridges,
15:10war continues to rage.
15:12From Israel and Gaza, Russia's invasion of Ukraine,
15:15and a dangerous confrontation between India and Pakistan
15:18breaking out during conclave,
15:20this American Pope faces a global challenge.
15:24And David, there is a sense that the divisions in the United States
15:26are making this American Pope better able to deal
15:29with the divisions in the wider world.
15:32David.
15:33James Longman back with us as well.
15:35James, thank you.
15:36And coming up just a short time from now,
15:38the entire team is here for an ABC News special.
15:41The American Pope, Leo XIV, the special edition of 2020,
15:44tonight at 9 p.m. Eastern, 8 Central, right here on ABC.
15:48And it's a fascinating story.
15:50In the meantime, we turn to the other major news this Friday night
15:52and to another major blackout at Newark Airport.
15:54Air traffic controllers watching as their radar screens went dark
15:57for nearly 90 seconds again, losing contact with passenger planes.
16:02Here's Gio Benitez.
16:04Tonight, another terrifying failure at Newark Airport.
16:07Air traffic control radar screens going black at Newark
16:10for about 90 seconds just before 4 a.m. this morning.
16:14Our scope ship went black again.
16:16Controllers warning an incoming jet
16:17that they might not be able to communicate
16:19if the radars and radios fail again.
16:22This happened in the middle of the night when there were very few airplanes.
16:41Someday it's going to happen where there's lots of bad weather
16:44and you'll have airplanes flying blind.
16:46It's the third radar outage at Newark in less than two weeks
16:50and it's led to thousands of delays and cancellations.
16:53And David, the White House said today
16:55they hope to have a quick fix by the end of the summer,
16:57but that, of course, is months from now.
16:59And then, of course, you have this weather in the Northeast.
17:02If that outage had happened during this weather,
17:05this could have been much worse.
17:07David.
17:07It really is extraordinary.
17:08Gio Benitez tonight.
17:09Gio, thank you.
17:10Next tonight here, President Trump signaling he is open to lowering his steep tariffs on China,
17:15suggesting now that they could be lowered from 145 percent to 80 percent imports of Chinese goods,
17:21but only if China, he says, makes concessions first.
17:24Treasury Secretary Scott Besson arriving in Geneva, Switzerland,
17:27for the first face-to-face trade talks with China.
17:29But the president tonight saying he won't be disappointed if he doesn't come back with a deal.
17:34We do have a passing to note tonight.
17:35Former Supreme Court Justice David Souter is being remembered,
17:38appointed by former President George H.W. Bush,
17:41dying at his New Hampshire home on Thursday.
17:43His 19 years on the high court surprising conservative Republicans at times
17:47as he sided with liberal justices on issues including Roe v. Wade
17:50and the Bush v. Gore 2000 presidential election fight.
17:54Justice David Souter was 89.
17:57When we come back here tonight, we're tracking storms hitting just as the weekend starts,
18:00the flood watch in the Northeast, heavy rain for Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and New York.
18:04We're tracking it.
18:05And tonight, the Soviet-era spacecraft launched back in 1972.
18:10Tonight, it's hurtling toward Earth.
18:12And what they're now saying about where it could go.
18:16Tonight, we're tracking heavy rain across the Northeast.
18:19More than 15 million Americans from Hartford, Connecticut, up to Maine,
18:22on alert for possible flooding.
18:23Strong thunderstorms with more than a half foot of rain and possible flooding for the Southeast
18:27right into early next week.
18:29When we come back on this Friday night, that Soviet-era spacecraft launched in 1972.
18:34Tonight, hurtling toward Earth.
18:36So where do they think it's headed?
18:39To the index of other news, in a Soviet-era spacecraft that was supposed to explore Venus
18:44is now expected to crash into Earth sometime tonight or tomorrow.
18:48The Cosmos 482, it's called, looks similar to this before it was launched in March of 1972.
18:53But it malfunctioned and never left Earth's orbit.
18:56Scientists now say the chances of Cosmos striking anyone on land remain very low.
19:01That's good news.
19:02Saying a 70% chance it will land in water if it doesn't burn up first.
19:06When we come back here tonight, the moving images from New York City to the Vatican here.
19:10What's been done for the first American Pope?
19:14Before we go tonight, from New York City to here in Rome, celebrating the first American
19:19Pope, the Empire State Building in gold and white.
19:22Two visitors from Missouri posing in front of St. Peter's Basilica.
19:25We can't get enough of the schoolchildren in the Pope's hometown of Chicago reacting to the news.
19:29And in Peru, where Pope Leo spent more than 20 years at Children's Choir displaying photos
19:35of Leo XIV, they consider him family.
19:38Thank you for watching on this Historic Week.
19:39I'm David Muir.
19:40I'll see you at 9 p.m. Eastern tonight for our ABC News special, The First American Pope.
19:45Good night.
19:46Thank you for making World News Tonight with David Muir, America's most watched newscast.
Recommended
20:29
|
Up next