Pope Leo XIV celebrates first Mass after historic election as Pope Francis successor
Wearing white vestments, Leo processed into the Sistine Chapel and blessed the cardinals as he approached the altar and Michelangelo’s “The Last Judgment” behind it.He delivered the opening prayers and hymns in Latin, and women read the initial Scripture readings.Addressing the cardinals in English, he said “you have called me to carry the cross and to be blessed” and asked for their help to spread the Catholic faith.It was the first time Leo made public remarks in English, after he spoke in Italian and Spanish only in his first comments from the loggia of St.
Peter’s Basilica on Thursday.Leo, the Chicago-born Augustinian missionary Robert Prevost, was elected Thursday afternoon as the 267th pope, overcoming the traditional prohibition against a pope from the United States.In his first appearance to the world Thursday evening, the 69-year-old wore the traditional red cape of the papacy — which Francis had eschewed on his election in 2013 — suggesting a return to some degree of rule-following after Francis’ unorthodox pontificate.But in naming himself Leo, after the 19th century social justice reformer pope and referring to some of Francis’ priorities, the new pope could also have wanted to signal a strong line of continuity: Another Leo in church history was Brother Leo, the 13th-century friar who was a great companion to St.Francis of Assisi, the late pope’s namesake.“Together, we must try to find out how to be a missionary church, a church that builds bridges, establishes dialogue, that’s always open to receive — like on this piazza with open arms — to be able to receive everybody that needs our charity, our presence, dialogue and love,” Leo said in near-perfect Italian in his first comments to the world.Francis, the first Latin American pope, clearly had his eye on Prevost and in many ways saw him as his heir apparent.
He sent Prevost, who had spent years as a missionary in Peru, to take over a complicated diocese there in 201...