Professor's chance encounter with new Pope

Prof Rowlands, in the middle, met Pope Leo XIV after she was invited by Sister Nathalie Becquart, right, inside the Vatican

A university professor had a chance encounter with the new Pope Leo XIV hours after he was elected.

Prof Anna Rowlands, of Durham University, described the meeting on Thursday evening as "an enormous joy and privilege".

She told BBC Breakfast the pontiff looked "slightly overwhelmed", but his serenity was also "intensified".

Chicago-born Robert Francis Prevost, 69, is the 267th Pope and the first American to fill the role.

Prof Rowlands, from Manchester, said her meeting with the new pope came about after Sister Nathalie Becquart - one of Pope Francis's most senior female appointments - invited her to a building inside the Vatican, where many staff live.

It turned out to be one of the first places Pope Leo XIV had decided to visit in private.

"Because I was with Sister Nathalie, slightly gate-crashing the arrangement, I was able to have a few words with Pope Leo yesterday evening, which was an enormous joy and privilege," Prof Rowlands said.

The theologian added she had met Prevost before he became pope, and described him as "quiet person", with a good sense of humour.

"He's very thoughtful and he's just very ordinary, so he's quite unassuming when you've met him in the past before he was Pope Leo," she said.

"I didn't see a change in those characteristics last night, perhaps an intensification of them."

Prof Anna Rowlands said there was a kindness and gentleness to the new pope

Born to parents of Spanish and Franco-Italian descent, Pope Leo served as an altar boy and was ordained in 1982.

He moved to Peru three years later, but returned regularly to the US to serve as a pastor and a prior in his home city.

The new Pope has Peruvian nationality and is fondly remembered as a figure who worked with marginalised communities and helped build bridges.

Prof Rowlands added: "He was the same person, but with a kind of intensified serenity. There was a gentleness and a kindness.

"He looked slightly overwhelmed, but in a rather lovely way and he was just touched by people, thanking him and greeting him, people he's known personally for such a long time."

Prof Rowlands had also met Pope Francis when she was seconded to the Vatican during his papacy.