Pope Leo XIV celebrates first Mass after election as Francis’ successor
The first north American pope in history was elected on Thursday.
Pope Leo XIV, history’s first North American pope, has celebrated his first Mass as pontiff in the Sistine Chapel.
He addressed cardinals in English at the start of the Mass, saying “you have called me to carry the cross and to be blessed”, and asking for their help to spread the Catholic faith.
It is the first time Leo has made public remarks in English, after he spoke in Italian and Spanish only in his first comments to the world from the loggia of St Peter’s Basilica on Thursday.
Leo offered off-the-cuff remarks at the start of his homily in the Sistine Chapel before the cardinals who elected him.
The Chicago-born Augustinian missionary Robert Prevost was elected to succeed Pope Francis on Thursday and to follow in his footsteps on social justice.
Wearing white vestments, Leo proceeded into the Sistine Chapel and blessed the cardinals as he approached the altar and Michelangelo’s The Last Judgment behind it.
It was in the same frescoed chapel that the 69-year-old Leo was elected on Thursday afternoon as the 267th pope – and the first from the United States.
