VATICAN CITY — Pope Leo XIV, history’s first U.S.-born pontiff, said Friday that his election was both a cross to bear and a blessing as he celebrated his first Mass as the head of the Catholic Church.

Leo spoke off-the-cuff in English in the Sistine Chapel to the cardinals who elected him to follow in the footsteps of Pope Francis, who put a commitment to social justice at the core of his papacy. He acknowledged the great responsibility they had placed on him before delivering a brief but dense homily on the need to joyfully spread Christianity in a world that often mocks it.

“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, as friends of Jesus, as believers, to announce the good news, to announce the Gospel,” he said.

The Mass was in the same frescoed chapel that Leo, the Chicago-born Augustinian missionary Robert Prevost, was elected Thursday afternoon as the 267th pope, overcoming the traditional taboo against a pontiff from the United States because of the secular power the country wields.

Leo will be formally installed as pope at a Mass on May 18, the Vatican said Friday, and will preside over his first general audience May 21. Meanwhile, he asked all Vatican leaders, who technically lost their jobs when Francis died April 21, to remain in their posts until he decides definitively on whether to confirm them.

A Mass That May Suggest His Priorities

Two women delivered the readings of Scripture at the start of the Mass, perhaps an indication of Leo’s intention to continue Francis’ focus on expanding women’s role in the church. As a cardinal, Leo put into practice one of Francis’ most revolutionary reforms by having three women serve on the Vatican board that vets bishop nominations.

Speaking in near-perfect Italian, Leo lamented that the Christian faith in many parts of the world is “considered absurd,” mocked or opposed in the face of temptations such as money, success and power. He complained that in many places Jesus is misunderstood, “reduced to a kind of charismatic leader or superman.”

“This is true not only among non-believers but also among many baptized Christians, who thus end up living, at this level, in a state of practical atheism,” he said. “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.”

The cardinals applauded as the Mass concluded. Leo was seen wearing simple black shoes — eschewing, as Francis did, the red loafers of the papacy preferred by some traditionalist popes.

In another signal he might break with tradition, Leo spent his first night as pontiff in his residence in the Sant’Uffizio Palace, and not the Apostolic Palace where popes traditionally reside, Vatican news reported. Francis chose to live in an apartment in the Santa Maria guest house.

Francis Had His Eye on the New Pope

Francis, the first Latin American pope, clearly had his eye on Prevost and in many ways saw him as his heir apparent. He sent Prevost, who had spent years as a missionary in Peru, to take over a complicated diocese there in 2014. Francis brought Prevost to the Vatican in 2023 to head of the Vatican’s powerful Dicastery for Bishops, which vets bishop nominations around the world and is one of the most important jobs in church governance.

Since arriving in Rome, Prevost had kept a low public profile but was well known to the men who count, and respected by those who worked with him.

“Even the bishops of Peru called him the saint, the saint of the north, and he had time for everyone,” said the Rev. Alexander Lam, an Augustinian friar from Peru who knows the new pope.

An Augustinian Pope

The last pope to take the name Leo was an Italian who led the church from 1878 to 1903. Leo XIII softened the church’s confrontational stance toward modernity, especially science and politics, and laid the foundation for modern Catholic social thought. His most famous encyclical — a high-level papal teaching — addressed workers’ rights and capitalism at the beginning of the industrial revolution and was highlighted by the Vatican in explaining the new pope’s choice of name.

While Vatican News said Leo XIV is the first Augustinian pope, the previous Leo had close ties to the order: He rebuilt an ancient Augustinian church and convent near his hometown of Carpineto, outside Rome, that is still in use by the order today.

Vatican watchers said Prevost’s decision to name himself Leo was particularly significant given the Leo XIII’s legacy of social justice and reform, suggesting continuity with some of Francis’ chief concerns. Specifically, Leo cited one of Francis’ key priorities of making the Catholic Church more attentive to lay people and inclusive.

“He is continuing a lot of Francis’ ministry,” said Natalia Imperatori-Lee, the chair of religious studies at Manhattan University in the Bronx. She added that his election could send a message to the U.S. church, which has been badly divided between conservatives and progressives, with much of the opposition to Francis coming from there.

“I think it is going to be exciting to see a different kind of American Catholicism in Rome,” Imperatori-Lee said.

Leo said in a 2023 interview with Vatican News that the polarization in the church was a wound that needed to be healed.

“Divisions and polemics in the church do not help anything. We bishops especially must accelerate this movement towards unity, towards communion in the church,” he said.

In the same interview, the then-cardinal said the women had enriched the process of vetting bishop nominations and reaffirmed the need for the laity to have a greater role in the church.

Leo’s brother, John Prevost, was so shocked that his brother had been elected pope that he missed several phone calls from Leo during an interview Thursday with The Associated Press.

John Prevost described his brother, a fan of Wordle, as being very concerned for the poor and those who don’t have a voice. He said he expects him to be a “second Pope Francis.”

“He’s not going to be real far left and he’s not going to be real far right,” he added. “Kind of right down the middle.”

Looking Ahead

In his first hours as pope, Leo went back to his old apartment to see colleagues, according to selfies posted to social media. Vatican Media also showed him in the moments after his election praying in the Pauline Chapel before emerging on the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica to greet Rome and the world.

On Sunday, he is set to deliver his first noon blessing from the loggia and attend an audience with the media on Monday in the Vatican auditorium.

Beyond that, his first foreign trip could be at the end of May: Francis had been invited to travel to Turkey to commemorate the 1,700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea, a landmark event in Christian history and an important moment in Catholic-Orthodox relations.

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Franklin Briceño in Lima Peru, Obed Lamy and Hallie Golden in New Lenox, Illinois, Colleen Barry in Schiavon, Italy, and Vanessa Gera and Giada Zampano in Rome contributed.

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