Pope Leo XIV, the American Robert Prevost, said “Peace be with you” in his first words as pope, offering a message of peace and dialogue “without fear.”
From the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica, history’s first American pope recalled he was an Augustinian priest, but that he was above all a Christian above all and a bishop, “So we can all walk together.”
He spoke in Italian and then switched to Spanish, recalling his many years spent as a missionary and then archbishop of Chiclayo, Peru.
Cardinal Robert Prevost, an American missionary who spent his career ministering in Peru and leads the Vatican’s powerful office of bishops, was elected the first American pope in the 2,000-year history of the Catholic Church.
The crowd in St. Peter’s Square erupted in cheers, priests made the sign of the cross and nuns wept as the crowd shouted “Viva il papa!” after the white smoke wafted into the sky.
It was a relatively short Conclave, with voting starting yesterday afternoon.
-With files from the Canadian Press, and the Associated Press-
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