POPE LEO SAYS HE WILL FOLLOW THE PATH OF HIS PREDECESSOR

POPE LEO SAYS HE WILL FOLLOW THE PATH OF HIS PREDECESSOR

Pope Leo XIV told cardinals on Saturday he intends to follow his predecessor’s path, praising Francis’s “complete dedication to service and sober simplicity of life”.

“Beginning with Saint Peter and up to myself, his unworthy Successor, the Pope has been a humble servant of God and his brothers and sisters, and nothing more than this,” he told cardinals, according to a transcript of his speech published by the Vatican.

He also said his choice of name reflects a commitment to social causes embraced by Leo XIII, who defended workers’ rights, according to the Vatican.

“I chose to take the name Leo XIV,” he said in a transcript of a speech published by the Vatican, because the 19th-century pontiff “addressed the social question in the context of the first great Industrial Revolution”.

He added that today, social teaching is needed “in response to another Industrial Revolution and to developments in the field of artificial intelligence that pose new challenges for the defence of human dignity, justice and labour”.