United States Cardinal Robert Prevost has been elected the first US pontiff in the 2,000-year history of the Catholic Church and has taken the name Pope Leo XIV.
Pope Leo made his first public appearance to impart a blessing from the roofed area of St Peter’s Basilica. In his first public words, Pope Leo told the faithful “peace be with all of you”. He emphasised the theme of peace throughout the address.
“Evil will not prevail; we are in the hands of God,” he told the crowd and a global audience. “So without fear, united hand in hand with God and among ourselves, we go forward.”
“Thank you, Pope Francis,” he added.
The new church leader called for a “missionary church…that builds bridges, is always open to welcome everyone”.
“He is clearly setting the tone for his papacy,” Al Jazeera Hoda Abdel-Hamid reported from Vatican City.
“He also had a political tone there, calling for peace everywhere, calling for disarmament, calling for building bridges. So we do get an idea in which direction he will be heading,” she said.
“The excitement level is like that of a World Cup final,” she noted earlier.
Pope Leo spent his career ministering in Peru and also lead the Vatican’s powerful office of bishops,
Earlier, white smoke emerged out of the Sistine Chapel chimney, signalling that a new pope had been elected.
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