POPE LEO XIV, in his first Mass as the 267th Supreme Pontiff, has clued in on the direction of his papacy after calling for a missionary Church that reaches beyond its walls and walks with the marginalized.
Speaking under Michelangelo’s frescoes at the Sistine Chapel, where he was elected pope just a day before, the new pontiff reminded the cardinals to persevere in the Church’s mission amid a society that mocks faith.
“Yet, precisely for this reason, they are the places where our missionary outreach is desperately needed. A lack of faith is often tragically accompanied by the loss of meaning in life, the neglect of mercy, appalling violations of human dignity, the crisis of the family, and so many other wounds that afflict our society,” Leo, who had been a missionary for years in Peru, said in his homily.
This outreach echoes his predecessor Pope Francis’s papacy, which emphasized mercy for those on the peripheries.
Though seen as more of a centrist than his predecessor, the new pope is expected to carry forward much of Pope Francis’s reforms in the global Church, particularly his commitment to the poor and migrants.
“This is the world that has been entrusted to us, a world in which, as Pope Francis taught us so many times, we are called to bear witness to our joyful faith in Jesus the Saviour.”
Pope Leo XIV, Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost until his election, made history on May 8 as the first pope from the United States—breaking centuries of resistance to an American papacy due to the enormous influence the global superpower US already wields.
The 69-year-old Chicago native spent most of his years as a missionary in Peru, where he eventually became archbishop of Chiclayo in 2015.
In another historic first, the Supreme Pontiff began his inaugural homily in American English before switching to Italian to address the cardinals who elected him pope.
“You have called me to carry that cross and to be blessed with that mission. And I know I can rely on each and every one of you to walk with me, as we continue as a Church, as a community of friends of Jesus, as believers, to announce the Good News, to announce the Gospel,” he said.
Vowing to be a faithful administrator, Leo said he would continue the mission of the Church to be “an ark of salvation sailing through the waters of history and a beacon that illumines the dark nights of this world.”
“And this, not so much through the magnificence of her structures or the grandeur of her buildings, but rather through the holiness of her members. For we are the people whom God has chosen as his own, so that we may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called us out of darkness into his marvellous light,” he said.
Pope Leo’s election ended a weeks-long sede vacante following the death of Pope Francis on April 21.
He was elected in less than 24 hours after the conclave started.
His regnal name takes from Pope Leo XIII, whose renewed focus on workers’ rights, emphasized by his landmark 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum (Of New Things), earned him the moniker, the “Social Pope.”
The inauguration Mass for the 267th pope will be held in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican on Sunday, May 18.
