Pope Leo XIV, Robert Prevast of America, said in his first words as Pope, “I will be with you,” providing a message of peace and dialogue “without fear.”
Speaking from the loggia at St. Peter’s Cathedral in his first words as Pope Francis’ successor, Leo emphasized the message of peace, dialogue and missionary evangelization. He wore a traditional red cape of the Pope. This is the cape Francis avoided in his 2013 election.
He spoke in Italian and then switched to Spanish, reminiscing about his years of missionary life as Archbishop of Chiclayo in Peru. He thanked the city of Chiclayo for his first Pope speech.
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 towards modernity, particularly science and politics, and laid the foundation for Catholic social thinking in 1891.
Pope Leo XIV became the leader of the Catholic Church on May 8, 2025, and became the first pope to be born in the United States. This is what you need to know.
“I think we had a lot of question marks when they selected the Americans, and he chose Pope Leo XIV,” said Natalia Imperati Lee, chairman of the Studies of Religion at Manhattan University. “That really means for me he’ll continue working with Leo XXIII.”
The name “is a deep sign of commitment to social issues,” Imperator-lee said. “I think this (new) Pope is saying something about social justice that choosing this name would make it a priority. He continues to do a lot of Francis’ ministry.”
As a cardinal, Prevost was known to be closely aligned with Pope Francis’ vision and the vision of the Church, focusing on outreach to immigrants and the poor.
Pope Francis clearly looked at Prevost, and in many ways he saw his heirs as revealed. He brought Prevost to the Vatican in 2023 and served as a strong director for the office of one of the most important jobs in the Catholic Church, veterinarians to nominate bishops from all over the world.
During that role, he was primarily sided with one of Francis’ most revolutionary reforms.
Pope Francis’ funeral was held at the Vatican on Saturday, with more than 50,000 people in St. Peter’s Square.
In January, Francis raised him to the Cardinal upper class. As a result, Prevost stood out to enter the conclave, which other cardinals had little to have.
A national Catholic reporter said the Cardinal electors “wanted someone to share (Francis) with the “sinodality” and focused on the poor people around the world.”
“For now, we can certainly state that Cardinal chose someone who was committed to reforming Pope Francis, but for sure,” the publication said.
Leo was previously the former general or leader of the Order of St. Augustine, and was formed in the 13th century as a community of “con-building” monks.
The requirements and spirit of order date back to St. Augustine, the fifth century of the Hippo, one of the theological and devoted giants of early Christianity.
According to its website, the order of St. Augustine exists in about 50 countries. That spirit includes contemplative spirituality, community life, and service to others.
The core value of their rules is “to live together in harmony, in one heart and one heart along the way to God.”
Joseph Farrell, pastor of the Order of St. Augustine, spoke about Pope Leo’s character and described him as a “humble” and a great role model.
Speaking to NBC News’ Tom Lamas in Rome, Archbishop of Philadelphia Nelson Jesus Perez last week, his colleagues said it was “a great gift for the church and the world.”
Perez said the new Pope is “a wonderful, gentle, profound man of God.”
Leo maintained an X account, NBC News reported.
In February, he shared a post from a National Catholic reporter, repeating the headline “JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank love for others.” The writer rebuts the Vice President’s claim in a Fox News interview where Christians prioritize people close to them before people from other countries.
According to NBC News, some conservative commentators have already seized his posts. Laura Rumer, the far-right commentator who influenced Trump, has released a series of posts denounce Leo’s politics. “Another Marxist doll from the Vatican,” she wrote.
Prevost was a major candidate, except for his nationality. For a long time, there has been a taboo against the American pope, given the geopolitical power already equipped by the United States in secular territory. However, Prevost, originally from Chicago, seemed eligible because he was a Peruvian citizen and had lived in Peru for years.
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