Read this in The Manila Times digital edition.
VATICAN CITY — 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' social justice-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 as the 267th pontiff, 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 and referring to some of Francis' more social justice-minded priorities, 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.
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, then brought him 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.
As if to drive that home, Leo spoke in Italian and Spanish from the loggia, but not English.