The new head of the Catholic Church will be officially established as Pope at Mass on May 18th, the Vatican says.
Pope Leo XIV celebrated his first Mass as a clergyman within 24 hours of his election, and he promised to make the Catholic Church a balm for the “dark night” of the world.
Leo, 69, former Cardinal Robert Prevost and the first American Pope delivered Mass on Friday, surrounded by Cardinals in the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City.
The new head of the Catholic Church was elected by fellow Cardinals on Thursday following the death of Pope Francis and became the first American pope in the church’s two,000-year history.
Leo, who currently leads 1.4 billion Catholics around the world, has admitted that Christian faith can sometimes be “absurd” and “weak and unintelligent” reserves.
“The lack of faith often tragically involves the loss of meaning in life, the neglect of mercy, the violation of human dignity, the crisis of family and the neglect of many other wounds that torment our society.”
He also warned that Jesus “cannot be reduced to a kind of charismatic leader or a superman.”
“This applies not only to non-followers, but also among many baptized Christians.
The new Pope said he would try to serve as a “faithful administrator” of the whole church.
Leo was officially established as Pope at Mass on May 18th, and presided over his first general audience on May 21st, and the Vatican said the world and religious leaders were invited to launch his formal Pope.
Pope Francis’ inauguration in 2013 attracted a crowd of about 200,000 people.
The new Pope will also leave high-ranking Vatican officials in their roles for the time being, giving him time to decide before making an appointment, the Vatican said.
The Pope was elected at the end of a two-day conclave Thursday evening when white smoke was caught in a massive wave from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel.
Francis, who passed away last month at the age of 88, should play a greater role in the matter, from budget shortages to the division of whether the church should be more welcome towards divorce from the LGBTQ community to help Leo inherit many of the major challenges.
Leo was born in Chicago but spent 20 years as a missionary in Peru.
Before his election, the US Cardinals were amortized primarily as candidates for the Pope, due to the broad assumption that the world’s churches would not be run by the superpower’s pope.
However, Leo also retains Peruvian citizenship, so it is understood that he has knowledge of both the West and the Global South.
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