Pope Leo XIV today leads the Regina Coeli prayer from the central loggia of St Peter’s Basilica.
The new Pope who celebrated Mass with the College of Cardinals on Friday in the Sistine Chapel, is expected to have his first media briefing on Monday May 12, in the Paul VI Hall.
The new occupier of the throne of St Peter chose the name Leo XIV, as a clear and deliberate reference to Pope Leo XIII, author of the 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum.
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According to Matteo Bruni, director of the Holy See Press Office, the document marked the beginning of the Church’s modern social doctrine.
“It is clearly a reference to the lives of men and women, to their work – even in an age marked by artificial intelligence,” Bruni said.
Pope Leo XIV, who have been described as a “very balanced, very spiritual, a person truly close to everyone,” by Alejandro Moral Antón, the Prior General of the Augustinians.
The Pope in his first public address spoke about justice and peace and of bridges between all, of synodality.
It is also believed that his choice of name Leo gives a clue to his programme for the coming years in reference to the words of St. Augustine, ‘We are pilgrims towards a true homeland.”
Like JohnPaul, like Benedict, Pope Leo XIV was elected after four ballots against the expectations of many as White smoke appear off the Sistine Chapel.
Atter the first three ballots ended inconclusive and the cardinal electors took some time off for lunch, many had thought the race towards electing a new Pope was in for long ride.
However, soon after the cardinal electors resumed from their break, While smoke came off Sistine Chapel, indicating a new Pope has been elected on the forth ballot.
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Soon after, the phrase ‘Habemus Papam’ (We have a Pope) was proclaimed to the world by Cardinal Protodeacon Dominique Mamberti, to the cheering thousands of Catholic faithful gathered at St. Peter Square awaiting the name of the next occupier of Peter’s throne.
“The Most Eminent and Most Reverend Lord Robert Francis Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church Prevost who has taken the name Leo XIV,” Cardinal Mamberti declared to the world from the central loggia of Saint Peter’s Basilica, few minutes after the White smoke was seen at the Sistine Chapel.
According to him, the cardinal electors had elected Robert Francis Cardinal Prevost (Pope Leo XIV) as the 267th Bishop of Rome.
The 69-year-old Pope Leo XIV is the first American and first Augustinian to be elected Pope, who proclaimed ‘peace’ to a troubled world in his first address to the people of God.
