Pope Leo XIV celebrated his first Mass on Friday in the Sistine Chapel of the city of the Vatican, where he was chosen less than 24 hours before and prayed so that his historical papacy can help the Catholic Church to be a lighthouse that illuminates “the dark nights of this world.”
Leo, former Cardinal Robert Prevost and the first American Pope seemed serene when he said the Mass in the famous Fresco Chapel with the same cardinals who chose him to be the Pontiff 267 and the successor of Pope Francis.
Dressed in relatively simple white and golden clothes, Leo, who was born in Chicago but spent two decades as a missionary in Peru, said some words in English before continuing his homily in Italian fluently. He painted the spiritual image of the Church that he would like to see under his papacy.
“God has … confident this treasure for me so that, with his help, he can be his faithful administrator for the good of the entire mystical body of the Church,” he said.
“She has done so that she can be increasingly a city located in a hill, an ark of salvation sailing through the waters of history and a lighthouse that illuminates the dark nights of this world,” he added, according to the official translation.
The Church of 1.4 billion members was great not because of “the magnificence of its structures or the greatness of its buildings … but through the holiness of its members.”
Quick appointment
Leo, 69, was chosen at the end of a quick two -day conclave that was wrapped on Thursday night when the white smoke left the chimney of the chapel.
Before their choice, US cardinals had been largely discarded as papal contenders due to a generalized assumption that the global church could not be directed by a Pope of the superpower.
However, it also has Peruvian citizenship, which means that it has a deep knowledge of the West and less developed nations.
After the Mass, Leo will have lunch with the cardinals who chose him and then will be free to leave the Vatican and return to their homes worldwide.
The successor of Pope Francis, who died last month at the age of 88, inherits a series of important challenges, ranging from a budget deficit to divisions about whether the Church should be more cozy towards the community and the divorced LGBT, and should allow women to play a greater role in their affairs.
The president of the United States, Donald Trump, quickly congratulated Leo. However, the new Pope has a story of criticizing Trump’s policies and vice president JD Vance, according to Publications on Robert Prevost’s X account.
The new Pope worked for decades in northern Peru, first as a missionary and later as a bishop of Chiclayo from 2015 to 2023. The Catholics took to the streets of the small city in the northwest of Peru, and the bells of the churches sounded to celebrate the choice of a man who hugged themselves as one of theirs.
One of the clues about the type of leader of the Leo Church was in his name choice, something that pontiffs often use to send a signal about the priorities of their new papacy.
The last Pope with this name was Leo XIII, who directed the Church of 1878-1903. He was known for his devout focus on social justice issues, he is often attributed to the basis for modern Catholic social education.
Prevost became a cardinal only in 2023. He has given some media interviews and it is known that he has a shy personality.
Francis brought it to Rome two years ago to head the Vatican office in charge of choosing which priests should serve as Catholic bishops worldwide, which means that he has had a hand to select many of the world’s bishops.
