POPE LEO XIV CELEBRATES FIRST MASS AFTER HISTORIC ELECTION AS POPE

POPE LEO XIV CELEBRATES FIRST MASS AFTER HISTORIC ELECTION AS POPE

Pope Leo XIV, history’s first North American pope, celebrated his first Mass as pontiff on Friday, presiding in the Sistine Chapel with the cardinals who elected him to succeed Pope Francis and follow in his social justice-minded footsteps.

Wearing white vestments, Leo processed into the Sistine Chapel and blessed the cardinals as he approached the altar and Michelangelo’s “The Last Judgment” behind it.

Leo, the Chicago-born Augustinian missionary Robert Prevost, surprised the world Thursday when he emerged on the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica as the 267th pontiff, overcoming the traditional prohibition against a pope from the United States.

It was in the same frescoed chapel that Leo, the Chicago-born missionary Robert Prevost, was elected Thursday afternoon as the 267th pope and the first from the United States.