Vatican City – I felt the square could speak in a voice, “Leone! Leone! Leone!”
Thousands of St. Peter’s Square chanted the chorus of the name Robert Prevast adopted when he ascended to Pope on Thursday: Leo XIV.
Just an hour and a half ago, white smoke blew wildly from the chimneys of the Sistine Chapel, and announced that Cardinals’ Conclave had elected a new leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.
Now it was time to meet Pope Leo himself. A strict silence fell across the square. The faithful waited to hear the Pope’s first message.
“Peace will come to you,” Leo XIV said.
He began to repeat the blessings spoken by his late predecessor, Pope Francis, a few weeks ago. “God loves us, God loves everyone, and evil does not win.
It was a common moment, when the cardinal red caps peered out from nearby windows, giving us the first glimpse of the newly-built Pope.
Pope Leo XIV was elected on the second day of Conclave, and his opening remarks as leader showed a continuity with Francis, who passed away on April 21st at the age of 88.
“Peace” was one of the most used words in his brief speeches. As Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni explained in his news briefing, it is a choice aimed at reflecting the words Jesus pronounced after Easter.
Leo XIV urged Catholics to seek “disarmed peace and disarming” through “dialogue” and “building bridges.”
“Bravo! That’s what we need!” shouted a single audience in the square as the new Pope had spoken.
Another 29-year-old Kasper Mihalak from Denmark was squeezed into the middle of the crowd, hoping to get a glimpse of the first North American pope.
“I’m really excited. Now it’s Leo XIV, now it’s Cardinal Cardinal – that’s amazing! He often said about peace during his speech. I think it’s really necessary now,” Michalak said.
Rosaria Venuto could hardly hold back her tears. Early in the morning she picked up her two children and drove four hours from Ascoli Satriano, a small town in the province of Apria in southern Italy, and was in St. Peters Square.
“I am deeply moved to be here and get the opportunity to overcome this joy and be a small part of this historic event,” she said.
The crowd gathers under the balcony of St. Peter’s Cathedral. [Alkis Konstantinidis/Reuters]
His own man
Born in Chicago, a city in the Midwest of the United States, Leo XIV spent more than 20 years in Peru, where he gained double citizenship.
There he worked in some of Peru’s poorest areas and eventually became bishop of Chiclayo, in the country’s northern agriculture. Then, in 2023, Pope Francis appointed him and led a strong office that administered bishops around the world.
Phil Prela, a Vatican expert who has covered the Pope for over 40 years, said the background is welcomed by Argentina and provides some continuity with Francis, who opposed poverty.
“He knows about poverty in Latin America,” Prera said of Leo XIV. “So, for example, he’s not the same as if he had chosen the New York Cardinal.”
That continuity likely was appreciated by the Vatican conservative and liberal camps, Prela added.
“He comes from a wealthy world, but he witnessed firsthand the problems of the global South of the poor country,” he said.
Still, Prela noted that Leo XIV’s outfit showed that “he would become his man.”
Instead of the simple white cassock he wore in 2013 when Pope Francis was elected, Leo XIII added a traditional red cape to his vest, symbolizing the spiritual and temporal power of his office.
“In a way, he’s back to that tradition a bit,” Prela said. “If he hadn’t had the conservative bloc votes, he wouldn’t have been elected.”
Vatican nuns will be happy to respond to the announcement of newly elected Pope Leo XIV on May 8th [Amanda Perobelli/Reuters]
Uniform diagram
Leo XIV’s election was a surprise to many. Many observers were betting on the new Pope by dusk, but only expected three rounds of votes.
The crowd was shattered at about 6:09pm local time (16:00 GMT) when white smoke began to flow from the small chimney by the evening.
It signaled that of the 133 cardinals under the age of 80 who were eligible to vote, the candidate had received the two-thirds of the majority needed to become Pope.
This year’s Conclave had the distinction as being the most international in Vatican history. Participating Cards are welcomed by over 70 countries and represent diverse views of the future of the Catholic Church.
Diversity is part of Pope Francis’ heritage, and to broaden the global appeal of the church, Cardinals have been appointed from underrepresented countries such as Laos and Haiti.
Francis spent 12 years as head of the Catholic Church, shaking its founding by adopting a clear style and tone focused on austerity and advocacy for a marginalized population.
The late Pope’s efforts sparked excitement among reformers, but disappointing among the conservatives who denounced him by diluting the teachings of the Church. Experts say it led to deep polarization within the church, and some members criticize Francis for dispersing the authority of the church.
These experts point out that Leo XIV’s experience in Romaculia, the church’s government, is likely a selling point among conservative conclave voters seeking stability over the next few years.
Catholic Church members support the election of the new Pope at the Vatican on May 8th [Marko Djurica/Reuters]
What’s the name?
Pope Leo XIV’s first move has not yet been revealed, but his name choice is worth noting.
Vatican spokesman Bruni pointed out that “Leo” was a direct reference to Pope Leo XIII, who adopted the doctrine of a new society in the late 19th century.
In 1891, Pope Leo XIII wrote the letter of the cyclical, known as Rerum Novarum, or the Pope. He called on Catholics to deal with the “miserability” facing the working class amid a rapid upheaval of industrialization and political change such as Italian unity.
Its cyclical marked a fundamental new approach to workers, sparking the creation of Catholic newspapers, social cooperatives and banks. This is a social movement that still lives on today.
Bruni said that Pope Leo, the present, wanted to portray in that technological revolution in parallel with that time.
“It’s not a coincidence reference to the men and women of their work at the time of artificial intelligence,” Bruni explained.
Robert Orsi, a professor of religion at Northwestern University, said the name choice could also mean other historical similarities.
Leo XIII “put a strong move on what’s called Americanism,” Orsi said.
“This movement is a kind of nationalist impulse within Catholicism, claiming that the church of the nation has its own identity and has a specific way of its own,” he explained. “And I think by choosing the name Leo XIV, this Pope was undoubtedly showing his return to global Catholicism.”
Prera also believes that Leo XIV mentioned his parishioners in Peru but avoided emphasising his relationship with the United States.
“I think it’s very important that he didn’t scream at the US. He didn’t say, ‘I’m from America.’ He didn’t speak in English,” Prela said.
It sent the message “basically he doesn’t own the US,” Prela added. Like the late Pope Francis, Leo XIV was critical of US President Donald Trump’s management of issues such as nationalism and migration.
Still, Orsi predicted the Vatican under the new Pope Leo to be “subtle and wise” about how he will deal with Trump in the coming years.
