Pope Leo XIV, history’s first North American pope, celebrated his first Mass as pontiff on Friday, presiding in the Sistine Chapel with the cardinals who elected him to succeed Pope Francis and follow in his social justice-minded footsteps.
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 2014. Francis then brought Prevost to the Vatican in 2023 to head of the Vatican’s powerful Dicastery for Bishops, which vets bishop nominations around the world and is one of the most important jobs in church governance.
Earlier this year, Francis elevated Prevost into the senior ranks of cardinals, giving him prominence going into the conclave that few other cardinals had.
There had long been a taboo on a US 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 two decades in Peru, first as a missionary and then as bishop.
Since arriving in Rome, Prevost had kept a low public profile but was well-known to the men who count, and respected by those who worked with him. 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.
In a 2023 interview with Vatican News, the then-cardinal said the women had enriched the process and reaffirmed the need for the laity to have a greater role in the church.
“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.
US President Donald Trump said it was “such an honor for our country” for the new pope to be American. The president added that “we’re a little bit surprised and we’re happy.”
Prevost has shared criticism of the Trump administration 's migration policies: In past social media posts, Prevost shared articles criticizing Vice President JD Vance's justification of the administration's mass deportation plans.
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.
That Leo also had close ties to the Augustinian order: He rebuilt an ancient Augustinian church and convent near his hometown of Carpineto, outside Rome, which is still in use by the new pope's order today.
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, a process known as synodality.
“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 US 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.
Leo said in a 2023 interview with Vatican News that the polarization in the church was a wound that needed to be healed.
“Divisions and polemics in the church do not help anything. We bishops especially must accelerate this movement towards unity, towards communion in the church,” he 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 US 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.
Leo's brother, John Prevost, was so shocked that his brother had been elected pope that he missed several phone calls from Leo during an interview Thursday with The Associated Press. He called the pope back and Leo told him he wasn't interested in being part of the interview.
John Prevost described his brother, a fan of Wordle, as being very concerned for the poor and those who don’t have a voice. He said he expects him to be a “second Pope Francis.”
“He’s not going to be real far left and he’s not going to be real far right,” he added. “Kind of right down the middle.”
Looking ahead
In his first hours as pope, Leo went back to his old apartment in the Sant'Uffizio Palace to see colleagues, according to selfies posted to social media. Vatican Media also showed him in the moments after his election praying at a kneeler in the Pauline Chapel before emerging on the loggia.
On Sunday, he is to deliver his first noon blessing from the loggia of St. Peter’s and attend an audience with the media on 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 Türkiye 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.
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 has no problem fixing a broken-down truck until it runs,” said Janinna Sesa, who met Prevost while she worked for the church’s Caritas charity.
