Pope Leo XIV celebrates first Mass as pontiff
Pope Leo XIV, history’s first North American pope, said Friday that his election was both a cross and a blessing as he celebrated his first Mass in Sistine Chapel (Video: Associated Press.)
Pope Leo XIV was welcomed as the newest pontiff by a sea of faithful and an uninterrupted view of St. Peter’s Square on Thursday.
Conversely, Pope Leo, born Robert Francis Prevost, introduced himself to the public speaking Italian and Spanish, and greeted onlookers both in person and virtually with a concise speech about building bridges and fostering hope for a synodal church.
“In his opening remarks, he mentioned being a missionary church that includes all people, and that comes right out of Pope Francis,” Dennis Doyle, professor emeritus at the University of Dayton in Ohio, told Fox News Digital.
Doyle taught at the Catholic research university for 40 years.
FIRST AMERICAN ELECTED PONTIFF, GET TO KNOW POPE LEO XIV
Pope Leo XIV appears on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, at the Vatican, May 8, 2025. (Guglielmo Mangiapane/Reuters)
Pope Francis, the 266th Vicar of Christ, created Provest a cardinal in 2023.
“Pope Francis’ first major document was called ‘Evangelii gaudium,’ ‘The joy of the gospel,” Doyle said.
In his evanescent address, Pope Leo XIV said, “To all you brothers and sisters of Rome, Italy, of all the world, we want to be a synodal church, walking and always seeking peace, charity, closeness, especially to those who are suffering.”
“Pope Francis was really big into this idea of synodality,” Doyle said.
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Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, stands for a portrait at the end of the consistory where Pope Francis elevated 21 new cardinals in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, Sept. 30, 2023. (Riccardo De Luca/AP)
“For him, in his very brief remarks, to say we must be a synodal church, that is a big signal that he intends to continue much of what Pope Francis was about,” he said of Pope Leo XIV.
The first American pope, though pointing to Francis’ papacy symbolically, dressed in traditional garb including a red mozzetta and white cassock. Pope Francis, in 2013, was notably absent of adornments on the balcony for his first public appearance as elected pontiff.
“He’s signaling he intends to be traditional in some ways,” Doyle said. “It’ll be interesting to see if he lives in the Apastolic Palace.”
The papal apartments at the Apastolic Palace are the official residence of the pope. Pope Francis broke tradition and declined residency there and, instead, lived at Domus Sanctae Marthae, the location where cardinal electors stay during a conclave.
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Archbishop Robert Francis Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV, receives the red biretta hat from the late Pope Francis during the consistory in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican City, Vatican, on Sept. 30, 2023. (Isabella Bonotto/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
“In some ways, maybe he’s going to be different from Francis,” Doyle said. “Francis did do some things that alienated traditionalists.”
Prevost was ordained on June 19, 1982. During his ministry, Cardinal Prevost was elected as head of the Augustinian Province of Chicago, his hometown, and served as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, among other notable titles.
The newest Bishop of Rome selected the papal name “Leo” and while it is presently unclear which of the 13 namesakes he admired most, Leo the Great, the first Pope Leo, and Pope Leo XIII seem ahead of the pack, according to Doyle.
Undated picture of Robert Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV, with Pope John Paul II. (Augustinian Province of Our Mother of Good Counsel/Handout via Reuters)
“Everybody’s looking first to Leo the XIII,” he said. “You never know until he says more.”
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Pope Leo XIV attended the funeral of Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square on April 26, 2025, in Vatican City, Vatican. Pope Francis died on April 21st at the age of 88. (Franco Origlia/Getty Images)
Pope Leo XIII is often renowned for writing the first of the great Catholic social encyclicals, Rerum Novarum.
“In Latin, Rerum Novarum is an idiom, and it means ‘On Revolutionary Changes,’” Doyle said. “It’s like an idiom for revolution. Although, a lot of people just translate it literalistically as ‘On New Things.’”
The encyclical, according to Doyle, addresses the rise of communism and the industrial revolution, including new and harsh conditions for workers in the 19th century.
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Pope Leo XIV leads the Pro Ecclesia Mass in the Sistine Chapel, on May 9, 2025, in Vatican City, (Vatican Media/Vatican Pool – Corbis/Getty Images)
“It starts out with a condemnation of socialism,” Doyle said. “Although, by socialism, he meant what we would only use the word ‘communism’ today.”
“He condemned it as being out of touch with the natural law. Because that natural law would tell us that ownership is something that is kind of natural to human beings; that we’re going to have property, if we make things and so on, that they are ours,” Doyle added.
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Doyle said that Catholic social teaching is general and addresses basic human principles about the economy and society with some room for interpretation.
“I think that he’s going to be a very balanced pope,” Doyle said.
