Cardinal Michael Czerny said that when Cardinal Robert F. Prevost was elected pope and chose the name Leo XIV, “I rejoiced; I really rejoiced.”
Vatican
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked Pope Leo XIV for his support of a just and lasting peace in Ukraine, and he invited the newly-elected pontiff to visit the war-torn nation.
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople said he hopes Pope Leo XIV will “be a dear brother and collaborator … for the rapprochement of our churches, for the unity of the whole Christian family, and for the benefit of all of humankind.”
Pope Leo XIV asked journalists to be peacemakers by shunning prejudice and anger in their reporting, and he called for the release of journalists imprisoned for their work.
Less than 48 hours after being elected, Pope Leo XIV got in the front seat of a minivan and traveled 40 miles southeast from the Vatican to pray at a Marian shrine cared for by his Augustinian confreres.
Full text of the first public homily of Pope Leo XIV, given at a Mass for the College of Cardinals in the Sistine Chapel May 9, 2025.
Where Christians are “mocked, opposed, despised, or at best tolerated and pitied” is where the Catholic Church’s “missionary outreach is most desperately needed,” Pope Leo XIV said in his first homily as leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.
As expected, the 133 cardinals who entered the Sistine Chapel May 7 failed to elect the next pope on their first ballot.
At a Mass before the conclave that will elect the next pope, the dean of the College of Cardinals urged his brothers to choose the shepherd the Church and all of humanity need “at this difficult and complex and tormented” turning point in history.
On the final day of official mourning for the death of Pope Francis, the late pontiff was remembered as someone who was determined to live out the mission entrusted to him and serve others, even when his health deteriorated.