On the afternoon of Thursday, May 9, crowds gathered in St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City to welcome the successor of Pope Francis. At 1:30 pm EST, 69 year old Cardinal, Robert Prevost—who has chosen the name Leo XIV as his papal name—was announced as the new head of the Catholic Church, creating history as the first American pope.

Prevost takes a more moderate stance in the Catholic Church compared to his predecessor, Pope Francis I. Prevost has shown to be less progressive on LGBTQ+ issues compared to Francis and has not disclosed his beliefs on reproductive care. However, Prevost is aligned with Francis’s thoughts on immigration and climate change.

In Prevost’s first speech as pope, he began in Italian with, “Peace be with you,” the greeting Christ gave when he rose from death. Prevost said he would like this greeting to reach the hearts of all. As well as sending peace to all, Prevost mentioned that the peace in the greeting of the Risen Christ comes from God.

“[Peace] comes from God. God, who loves all of us, without any limits or conditions,” Prevost said. “We are all in the hands of god. Without fear, united, hand in hand with God and among ourselves.”

In his speech, Prevost paid thanks to Pope Francis for having a powerful, virtuous voice in his time as the pope. Prevost hopes to continue on Francis’s blessing of Rome and the world that he gave in his speech after becoming pope.

“I will now give my blessing to you and to the whole world, to all men and women of goodwill,” said Pope Francis during his first speech as pope.
In this speech, Francis also mentioned the beginning of a journey. A journey that Prevost now plans to lead.

“This journey of the Church of Rome, which presides in charity over all the Churches, a journey of brotherhood in love, of mutual trust,” Francis said. “Let us pray for the whole world that there might be a great sense of brotherhood.”

During the ceremony, Prevost also thanked the cardinals for electing him as pope after a quick, two-day conclave, the same length as Pope Francis’s conclave. Prevost was elected particularly swiftly after only four ballots. Pope Francis was elected after five ballots.

“Thank you to my cardinal brothers who chose me to be the successor of Peter and to walk together with you as a united Church, searching all together for peace and justice, working together as women and men, faithful to Jesus Christ without fear,” Prevost said.

Prevost also reiterated that the Catholic Church is to be a synodal church, a church in which every one of its members is on a journey together towards God. Along with this, Prevost repeated that the Church is meant to be available to anyone. Additionally, everyone in the Church is in concert on their voyage.

“We have to look together how to be a missionary Church, building bridges, dialogue, always open to receiving with open arms for everyone, like this square, open to all, to all who need our charity, our presence, dialogue, love,” Prevost said. “May we all walk together towards that homeland that God has prepared for us.”