Pope Leo XIV celebrates his first Mass on Friday after his historic election as the first North American pope, meeting with the cardinals who chose him to lead the Catholic Church and follow in Pope Francis’ reform-minded footsteps.
Leo, the Chicago-born Augustinian missionary Robert Prevost, surprised the world Thursday when he emerged on the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica, overcoming the traditional prohibition against a pope from the United States.
The 69-year-old wore the traditional red cape — which Francis had eschewed on his election in 2013 — and trappings of the papacy, suggesting a return to some degree of rule-following after Francis’ unorthodox pontificate.
But in naming himself Leo, the new pope could also have wanted to signal a strong line of continuity: Brother Leo was 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.
Prevost had been a leading candidate for the papacy since Francis tapped him to be head of the Vatican’s powerful Dicastery for Bishops, which vets bishop nominations around the world. There had long been a taboo on a U.S. pope, given America’s superpower status in the secular world, but Prevost prevailed, perhaps because he’s also a Peruvian citizen and had lived for years in Peru, first as a missionary and then as bishop.
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 to take over a complicated diocese in Peru in 2014, then brought him to the Vatican in 2023. Earlier this year, Francis elevated Prevost into the senior ranks of cardinals, giving him prominence going into the conclave that few other cardinals had.
Since arriving in Rome, Prevost had kept a low public profile but was well-known to the men who count. Significantly, he presided over one of the most revolutionary reforms Francis made, when he added three women to the voting bloc that decides which bishop nominations to forward to the pope.
“Even the bishops of Peru called him the saint, the Saint of the North, and he had time for everyone,” said the Rev. Alexander Lam, an Augustinian friar from Peru who knows the new pope.
The crowd in St. Peter’s Square 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 around the world, tens of thousands of people were surprised an hour later when the senior cardinal deacon announced the winner was Prevost.
U.S. President Donald Trump said it was “such an honor for our country” for the new pope to be American.
“What greater honor can there be?” he said. The president added that “we’re a little bit surprised and we’re happy.”
An Augustinian pope
The last pope to take the name Leo was Leo XIII, an Italian who led the church from 1878 to 1903. That Leo softened the church’s confrontational stance toward modernity, especially science and politics and laid the foundation for modern Catholic social thought. His most famous encyclical, Rerum Novarum of 1891, addressed workers’ rights and capitalism at the beginning of the industrial revolution and was highlighted by the Vatican in explaining the new pope’s choice of name.
Vatican watchers said Prevost’s decision to name himself Leo was particularly significant given the previous Leo’s legacy of social justice and reform, suggesting continuity with some of Francis’ chief concerns. Specifically, Leo cited one of Francis’ key priorities of making the Catholic Church more attentive to lay people and inclusive.
“He is continuing a lot of Francis’ ministry,’’ said Natalia Imperatori-Lee, the chair of religious studies at Manhattan University in the Bronx. But she also said his election could send a message to the U.S. church, which has been badly divided between conservatives and progressives, with much of the right-wing opposition to Francis coming from there.
“I think it is going to be exciting to see a different kind of American Catholicism in Rome,’’ Imperatori-Lee said.
Archbishop Bernard Hebda, of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, told reporters he never thought he would see an American pope, given the questions of how he would navigate dealing with a U.S. president, especially someone like Trump.
“And so I just never imagined that we would have an American pope, and I have great confidence that Pope Leo will do a wonderful job of navigating that,” he said.
Looking ahead
Leo was expected to celebrate Mass with cardinals in the Sistine Chapel on Friday, deliver his first Sunday noon blessing from the loggia of St. Peter’s and attend an audience with the media Monday in the Vatican auditorium, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said.
Beyond that, he has a possible first foreign trip at the end of May: Francis had been invited to travel to Turkey to commemorate the 1,700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea, a landmark event in Christian history and an important moment in Catholic-Orthodox relations. Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, the spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, welcomed Leo’s election and said he hoped he would join the anniversary celebration.
The new pope was formerly the prior general, or leader, of the Order of St. Augustine, which was formed in the 13th century as a community of “mendicant” friars — dedicated to poverty, service and evangelization. Vatican News said Leo is the first Augustinian pope.
In Peru, he is known as the saintly missionary who waded through mud after torrential rains flooded the region, bringing help to needy people, and as the bishop who spearheaded the lifesaving purchase of oxygen production plants during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“He worked so hard to find help, that there was not only enough (money) for one plant, but for two oxygen plants,” said Janinna Sesa, who met Prevost while she worked for the church’s Caritas nonprofit.
“He has no problem fixing a broken-down truck until it runs,” she added.
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Franklin Briceno in Lima Peru, Colleen Barry in Schiavon, Italy and Giada Zampano in Rome contributed.
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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
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