How a quiet American cardinal became pope

His attributes include having the heart of a missionary, scholarly depth and knowledge of the world

- Jason Horowitz, Emma Bubola, Elizabeth Dias and Patricia Mazzei

VATICAN CITY - The cardinals electing a new pope to lead the Catholic Church left the Sistine Chapel exhausted and hungry.

A meditation to start the conclave had dragged on and pushed their first vote deep into the evening of May 7. It had resulted in an inconclusive tally, with three main contenders.

Keeping their vow of secrecy, they returned to Casa Santa Marta, the guesthouse where they were sequestered without their phones, and started talking.

Over dinner, as one gluten-free cardinal picked over vegetables and others shrugged at the simple fare, they weighed their choices.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, 70, the Italian who ran the Vatican under Pope Francis, had entered the conclave as a front runner, but had not received overwhelming support during the vote.

The Italians were divided, and some of the cardinals in the room had become bothered by his failure to emphasize the collaborative meetings that Pope Francis prioritized for governing the church.

Cardinal Peter Erdo of Hungary, 72, backed by a coalition of conservatives that included some African supporters, had no way to build momentum in an electorate widely appointed by Pope Francis.

That left Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, 69, a quiet American dark horse who had surprisingly emerged in the evening's vote as a source of particular interest.

A missionary turned religious order leader, turned Peruvian bishop, turned Vatican power player, he checked many of the boxes that a broad range of cardinals hoped to fill. His seeming ability to be from two places at once—North and South America—pleased cardinals on two continents. As the prelates sounded out the Latin American cardinals who knew him well, they liked what they heard.