JOHANNESBURG - The Catholic church has a new leader.
Cardinals elected American, Robert Francis Prevost, during their conclave at the Vatican last night.
He is the first American Pope to be elected and has chosen the name of Pope Leo XIV.
He is currently leading his first mass in the Sistine Chapel.
The new pontiff now has to cement his moral voice on global geo-politics, a widfe range of conflicts and guarding the image of the Catholic church.
READ | 'A blessing': US Catholics celebrate first American pope
Reacting to this, Professor Simangaliso Kumalo, the Dean and Head of the School of Religion, Philosophy and Classics at UKZN foresees a cooling down of the radical decisions and pushing seen by Pope Francis.
'Prevost is not far from Pope John Paul II who was a strong theologian and a churchman in that sense. I do not see him taking the church to a radical position," he said.
Khumalo further added that the electon of Prevost as the new pope will also be helpful in terms of the relationship between the Catholic church and America.
"Maybe he will say the right things to call America to order on some of the decisions and orders passed through," he explained.