But many people in the square looked puzzled at first, and the complete lack of phone coverage meant that most couldn't look him up on the internet - so the first impression most got of Pope Leo XIV came down to the way he introduced himself from the ornate balcony.

The new pontiff is former Cardinal Robert Prevost, 69, a Chicago-born Augustinian friar who previously headed the influential Vatican Dicastery for Bishops.

The election of a first North American pontiff came after the death of the first Latin American pope and signaled a relinquishing of papal authority from Europe.