| By AP News Photos: YouTube Screenshots\Wikimedia Commons 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’ footsteps. Read more. |
| What to know: The Chicago-born Augustinian missionary Robert Prevost surprised the world Thursday when he emerged on the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica, overcoming the traditional prohibition against a pope from the United States. There had long been a taboo on a U.S. 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 years in Peru, first as a missionary and then as bishop. Since arriving in Rome, Prevost had kept a low public profile but was well-known to the men who count. Francis tapped him to be head of the Vatican’s powerful Dicastery for Bishops, which vets bishop nominations around the world and, significantly, he presided over one of the most revolutionary reforms Francis made, when he added three women to the voting bloc that decides which bishop nominations to forward to the pope. Vatican watchers said Prevost’s decision to name himself Leo was particularly significant, suggesting continuity with some of Francis’ chief concerns: Brother Leo was the 13th century friar who was a great companion to St. Francis of Assisi, the late pope’s namesake. Leo has also cited one of Francis’ key priorities of making the Catholic Church more attentive to lay people and inclusive. |
