VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Leo XIV, historical past’s first North American pope, celebrated his first Mass as pontiff on Friday, presiding within the Sistine Chapel with the cardinals who elected him to succeed Pope Francis and comply with in his social justice-minded footsteps.
Carrying white vestments, Leo processed into the Sistine Chapel and blessed the cardinals as he approached the altar and Michelangelo’s “The Final Judgment” behind it. He delivered the opening prayers and hymns in Latin, and girls learn the preliminary Scripture readings.
Addressing the cardinals in English, he stated “you’ve got referred to as me to hold the cross and to be blessed” and requested for his or her assist to unfold the Catholic religion. It was the primary time Leo made public remarks in English, after he spoke in Italian and Spanish solely in his first feedback from the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica on Thursday.
Leo, the Chicago-born Augustinian missionary Robert Prevost, was elected Thursday afternoon because the 267th pope, overcoming the normal prohibition towards a pope from america.
In his first look to the world Thursday night, the 69-year-old wore the normal purple cape of the papacy — which Francis had eschewed on his election in 2013 — suggesting a return to some extent of rule-following after Francis’ unorthodox preach.
However in naming himself Leo, after the nineteenth century social justice reformer pope and referring to a few of Francis’ priorities, the brand new pope may even have needed to sign a robust line of continuity: One other Leo in church historical past was Brother Leo, the Thirteenth-century friar who was an important companion to St. Francis of Assisi, the late pope’s namesake.
“Collectively, we should attempt to learn the way to be a missionary church, a church that builds bridges, establishes dialogue, that’s at all times open to obtain — like on this piazza with open arms — to have the ability to obtain all people that wants our charity, our presence, dialogue and love,” Leo stated in near-perfect Italian in his first feedback to the world.
Francis had his eye on the brand new pope
Francis, the primary Latin American pope, clearly had his eye on Prevost and in some ways noticed him as his inheritor obvious. He despatched Prevost, who had spent years as a missionary in Peru, to take over an advanced diocese there in 2014. Francis then introduced Prevost to the Vatican in 2023 to go of the Vatican’s highly effective Dicastery for Bishops, which vets bishop nominations all over the world and is without doubt one of the most essential jobs in church governance.
Earlier this yr, Francis elevated Prevost into the senior ranks of cardinals, giving him prominence going into the conclave that few different cardinals had.
There had lengthy been a taboo on a U.S. pope, given America’s superpower standing within the secular world. However Prevost prevailed, maybe as a result of he’s additionally a Peruvian citizen and had lived for 20 years in Peru, first as a missionary after which as bishop.
Since arriving in Rome, Prevost had stored a low public profile however was well-known to the boys who rely, and revered by those that labored with him. Considerably, he presided over one of the vital revolutionary reforms Francis made, when he added three ladies to the voting bloc that decides which bishop nominations to ahead to the pope.
In a 2023 interview with Vatican Information, the then-cardinal stated the ladies had enriched the method and reaffirmed the necessity for the laity to have a better function within the church.
“Even the bishops of Peru referred to as him the saint, the Saint of the North, and he had time for everybody,” stated the Rev. Alexander Lam, an Augustinian friar from Peru who is aware of the brand new pope.
Reactions to a North American
The gang in St. Peter’s Sq. erupted in cheers Thursday when white smoke poured out of the Sistine Chapel shortly after 6 p.m. on the second day of the conclave. Waving flags from all over the world, tens of 1000’s of individuals had been stunned an hour later when the senior cardinal deacon introduced the winner was Prevost.
U.S. President Donald Trump stated it was “such an honor for our nation” for the brand new pope to be American. The president added that “we’re slightly bit stunned and we’re glad.”
Prevost has shared criticism of the Trump administration ‘s migration insurance policies: In previous social media posts, Prevost shared articles criticizing Vice President JD Vance’s justification of the administration’s mass deportation plans.
An Augustinian pope
The final pope to take the identify Leo was Leo XIII, an Italian who led the church from 1878 to 1903. That Leo softened the church’s confrontational stance towards modernity, particularly science and politics, and laid the inspiration for contemporary Catholic social thought. His most well-known encyclical, Rerum Novarum of 1891, addressed staff’ rights and capitalism at first of the commercial revolution and was highlighted by the Vatican in explaining the brand new pope’s selection of identify.
That Leo additionally had shut ties to the Augustinian order: He rebuilt an historical Augustinian church and convent close to his hometown of Carpineto, outdoors Rome, which remains to be in use by the brand new pope’s order at present.
Vatican watchers stated Prevost’s determination to call himself Leo was notably important given the earlier Leo’s legacy of social justice and reform, suggesting continuity with a few of Francis’ chief issues. Particularly, Leo cited certainly one of Francis’ key priorities of constructing the Catholic Church extra attentive to put individuals and inclusive, a course of generally known as synodality.
“He’s persevering with quite a lot of Francis’ ministry,’’ stated Natalia Imperatori-Lee, the chair of non secular research at Manhattan College within the Bronx. However she additionally stated his election may ship a message to the U.S. church, which has been badly divided between conservatives and progressives, with a lot of the right-wing opposition to Francis coming from there.
“I believe it’s going to be thrilling to see a special type of American Catholicism in Rome,’’ Imperatori-Lee stated.
Leo stated in a 2023 interview with Vatican Information that the polarization within the church was a wound that wanted to be healed.
“Divisions and polemics within the church don’t assist something. We bishops particularly should speed up this motion in the direction of unity, in the direction of communion within the church,” he stated.
Archbishop Bernard Hebda, of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, instructed reporters he by no means thought he would see an American pope, given the questions of how he would navigate coping with a U.S. president, particularly somebody like Trump.
“And so I simply by no means imagined that we might have an American pope, and I’ve nice confidence that Pope Leo will do a beautiful job of navigating that,” he stated.
Leo’s brother, John Prevost, was so shocked that his brother had been elected pope that he missed a number of telephone calls from Leo throughout an interview Thursday with The Related Press. He referred to as the pope again and Leo instructed him he wasn’t excited by being a part of the interview.
John Prevost described his brother, a fan of Wordle, as being very involved for the poor and those that don’t have a voice. He stated he expects him to be a “second Pope Francis.”
“He’s not going to be actual far left and he’s not going to be actual far proper,” he added. “Form of proper down the center.”
Trying forward
In his first hours as pope, Leo went again to his outdated condominium within the Sant’Uffizio Palace to see colleagues, in response to selfies posted to social media. Vatican Media additionally confirmed him within the moments after his election praying at a kneeler within the Pauline Chapel earlier than rising on the loggia.
On Sunday, he’s to ship his first midday blessing from the loggia of St. Peter’s and attend an viewers with the media on Monday within the Vatican auditorium, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni stated.
Past that, he has a potential first overseas journey on the finish of Could: Francis had been invited to journey to Turkey to commemorate the 1,700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea, a landmark occasion in Christian historical past and an essential second in Catholic-Orthodox relations.
The brand new pope was previously the prior basic, or chief, of the Order of St. Augustine, which was shaped within the Thirteenth century as a group of “mendicant” friars — devoted to poverty, service and evangelization. Vatican Information stated Leo is the primary Augustinian pope.
In Peru, he is called the saintly missionary who waded by means of mud after torrential rains flooded the area, bringing assist to needy individuals, and because the bishop who spearheaded the lifesaving buy of oxygen manufacturing crops in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“He has no drawback fixing a broken-down truck till it runs,” stated Janinna Sesa, who met Prevost whereas she labored for the church’s Caritas charity.
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