Pope Leo XIV met with Cardinals, who had chosen to lead the Catholic Church and follow Pope Francis’ reform-oriented footsteps, celebrating his first Mass on Friday after his historic election as the first North American pope.
Leo, a Chicago-born Augustine missionary, Robert Probst, surprised the world when he appeared at the loggia at St. Peter’s Cathedral on Thursday, overcoming a traditional ban on the pope from America.
The 69-year-old wears the traditional red cape and Pope trap that Francis avoided in the 2013 election, suggesting that he will return to some degree of control after Francis’ unorthodox bishop.
But by naming Leo herself, the new Pope might have also wanted to show strong continuity. Brother Leo was a 13th century monk who was a great companion to St. Francis of Assisi, the same name of the late Pope.
“Together, we must try to find a way to be a missionary church, a church that builds bridges and establishes dialogue. This can always be received so that we can receive everyone who needs our charity, existence, dialogue and love, like the weapons that have been opened in this square.”
Prevost has been a major candidate for the Pope since Francis tapped him as he became the head of the Vatican’s powerful Dicastery for bishops bestializing bishops around the world. Given the status of the American superpower in the secular world, the Pope has long had taboos, but perhaps because he was a Peruvian citizen and lived in Peru for years, first as a missionary and then as a bishop.
Francis, the first Latin American pope, clearly looked at prevention, and in many respects he saw his heirs as revealed. He sent Prevost in 2014 to take over a complicated parish in Peru, and in 2023 he took him to the Vatican. Earlier this year, Francis lifted Prevost to the upper level of the Cardinal, and it stands out to enter the Conclave, which other Cardinals had little to have.
Since arriving in Rome, Prevost kept his public profile low, but was well known to the men who counted it. Importantly, he mainly sided one of the most revolutionary reforms Francis had made.
“Even the Bishop of Peru called him a saint of the North and he had time for everyone,” said Pastor Alexander Lamb, a monk of Augustine from Peru who knows the new Pope.
The crowds at St. Peter’s Square erupted in cheers just after 6pm on the second day of Conclave as white smoke poured in from the Sistine Chapel. Waving flags from all over the world, tens of thousands of people were surprised an hour later when the Butler Senior Cardinal announced that the winner was Prevost.
President Donald Trump said it would be “an honor for our country” for a new Pope to become an American.
“How great is there?” he said. The president added, “We were a little surprised and we are happy.”
Pope Augustine
The last Pope to take the name Leo was Leo XIII, the Italian who led the church from 1878 to 1903. Leo tempered the Church’s conflicting attitudes, particularly towards science and politics, laying the foundation for modern Catholic social thinking. His most famous cyclic Novarum of 1891 was highlighted when the Vatican explained the choice of the new Pope’s name at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, addressing workers’ rights and capitalism.
Vatican watchers said Prevost’s decision to name Leo himself was particularly important given Leo’s legacy of social justice and reform before, suggesting continuity with some of Francis’ main concerns. Specifically, Leo cited one of Francis’ important priorities to make the Catholic Church more comprehensive and careful with the people.
“He continues to do many Francis’ missions,” said Natalia Imperati Lee, chairman of religion at Manhattan University in the Bronx. But she also said his election could send a message to the American church, where the majority of the conservatives and progressives are divided between conservatives and progressives, along with the rightly oriented opposition to Francis coming from there.
“I think it’s exciting to see another kind of American Catholicism in Rome,” Imperatilly said.
Archbishop Bernard Hebda of St. Paul and Archdiocese of Minneapolis told reporters he didn’t expect him to see the American Pope.
“And we never imagined we had an American Pope. We have great confidence that Pope Leo will do an amazing job navigating it,” he said.
Looking ahead
Leo celebrated a mass with the Cardinals at the Sistine Chapel on Friday, delivering his first Sunday noon blessing from St. Peter’s Loggia and was expected to attend the media audience on Monday at the Vatican Auditorium, said Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni.
Beyond that, he has his first foreign trip at the end of May. Francis was invited on a trip to Turkey to commemorate the 1,700th anniversary of Nicaea’s first council, a landmark event in Christian history and a key moment in Catholic Orthodox relations. Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, a spiritual leader of the world’s orthodox Christians, said he welcomed Leo’s election and wanted to take part in the anniversary celebration.
The new Pope was previously the former general or leader of the Order of St. Augustine. It was formed in the 13th century as a community of “Mendicant” monks dedicated to poverty, service and evangelization. Vatican News said Leo was the first Pope Augustine.
In Peru, he was known as a sacred missionary who walked through the mud after intensive rain flooded the area, bringing help to the poor and leading the life-saving purchase of oxygen-producing plants during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“He worked so hard to find help that there was enough (money) for not only one plant but two oxygen plants,” said Janinna Sesa, whom she met Prevost while working for the nonprofit in Caritas at the church.
“He has no problem fixing a broken truck until he runs,” she added.
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Contributors were Franklin Briceno of Peru, Colleen Barry of Ciabon in Italy, and Giada Zampano of Rome.
Leaders around the world responded to the election of Pope Leo XIV, the new head of the Catholic Church.
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