Pope Leo XIV, history’s first North American pope, celebrated his first mass as pontiff on Friday, with the world watching for signs of what kind of leader he would be.
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Leo, the former Cardinal Robert Prevost, looked serene as he said the mass in the Sistine Chapel with the same cardinals who chose him to be the 267th pontiff and the successor to Pope Francis.
Dressed in relatively simple white and gold vestments, Leo, who was born in Chicago but spent two decades as a missionary in Peru, said a few words in English before continuing his homily in fluent Italian. He painted the spiritual picture of the Church he would like to see under his papacy.
“God has … entrusted this treasure to me so that, with his help, I may be its faithful administrator for the sake of the entire mystical Body of the Church,” he said.
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Robert Prevost chosen as new pope, first US pontiff in history of Catholic Church
Robert Prevost chosen as new pope, first US pontiff in history of Catholic Church
“He has done so in order that she may be ever more fully a city set on a hill, an ark of salvation sailing through the waters of history and a beacon that illumines the dark nights of this world,” he added, according to the official translation.
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