‘Leone!’ Vatican crowd is Leo XIV as a new Pope Catholic Church News for religion

Vatican City – It felt like the square could talk in one voice, “Leone! Leone! Leon!”

Thousands of people in St. Petrov Square sang in the choir, the name he adopted Robert Translation While on Thursday was ascended on the Papition: Leo XIV.

Only an hour and a half before, white smoke It was from the chimney of the Sikstina Kapela, announced that the conclusion of the cardinal was elected a new leader for 1.4 billion world Catholics.

Now there was time to meet Pope Le’s. The solemn silence fell across the square. The faithful were waiting to hear the first message of the Pope, which would set the tone for his papacy.

“Peace is up to you,” Leo Xiv said, appearing on the central Balcony of St. Peter.

He repeated a blessing who pronounced his deceased predecessor, Pope Francis, just a few weeks earlier: “God loves us, God loves us, and evil will not overcome. We are in the hands of God.”

It was closely watched a momentWith red speckled cardinals that come out of nearby windows to catch their first sight of the newly forged Pontif.

Pope Leo XIV was chosen on another day lockedAnd his introductory notes as a leader signaled the continuity with Francis, which died 21. April in 88. April. But experts say they are likely to kill the middle path, between the improvement of the Francis Inclusive Plan and the acceptance of the Vatican tradition.

In his short speech, “Peace” was one of the most common words – the choice is the meaning of echoing the words Jesus uttered after Easter, as Matteo Bruni’s Fathan spokesman explained during the briefing for the news.

Leo Xiv called Catholics to look for “disarmed peace and disarming peace” through “dialogue” and “bridge building”, in a short speech difficult with the topics of unity.

“Bravo! That’s what we need!” One member of the audience on the square shouted as a new pope.

Another, 29-year-old Kasper Mihalak from Denmark, is squeezed in the middle of a crowd, hoping to see the first North American Pope.

“I’m really excited. Cardinal Translation, now Leo Xiv – he’ll be amazing! He said a lot about peace during his speech. I think the world is really needed,” Mihalak said.

Rosaria Venuto could hardly keep her tears. She picked up her two children early in the morning and drove four hours from Ascoli Satrian, a small town in the southern Italian Province of Apulia, to be in St. Peter Square.

“I deeply moved that I had the opportunity to be here and live through this joy and be a small part of this historic event,” she said.

His own man

Born in Chicago, Midwestern City in the United States, Leo XIV spent more than two decades in Peru, where he acquired double citizenship.

He worked there in some poorest areas of Peru, and in the end, he became the Bishop Chiclayo, in the country in the country. He was then 2023. Papa Francis appointed him to lead a powerful office that governs bishops around the world.

Phil Pullella, a Vatican expert who covered the papacy for more than four decades, said the background offers the degree of continuity with Francis, which is from Argentina and advocated against poverty.

“He knows about poverty in Latin America,” Pullella told Leo XIV. “So he’s not the same thing as if they were choosing some Cardinal New York for example.”

This continuity is likely to appreciate conservative camps in the Vatican, as well as liberally relying, Pullell added.

“He comes from the rich world, but he testified first-hand with the problems of the global south in the poor country,” he said.

Still, Pullella mentioned that the way Leo XIV was trained that “he would be his man”.

Instead of a simple white Cassock, which Pope Francis wore in 2013. year when he was elected, Leo XIII added a Traditional red cloak Through the vest, it symbolizes the spiritual and temporal powers of his office.

“In a sense, he returns a little to such a tradition,” Pullell said. “He would not be chosen he had no votes of the conservative block.”

Unification figure

Lea XIV elections came as a surprise to many. Many observers bet on the new Pope at night, but he only expected three rounds of voting.

The audience was stunned when the white smoke started pouring out of a small chimney until the beginning of the evening, around 18:09 local time (16:00 GMT).

It was a signal that – of 133 cardinals under the age of 80 who had the right to vote – the candidate received most of the two-thirds needed for the Pope.

This year’s Konclevac had the difference that most often international in the history of the Vatican: participating cardinals were greeted from more than 70 countries, representing different views for the future of the Catholic Church.

Diversity was part of the Pope Francis legacy, which appointed cardinal from insufficient countries such as Laos and Haiti to expand the church global appeal.

Francis spent 12 years as the head of the Catholic Church, shaking the institution with the adoption of expressed style and tons, focused on the thrift and advocacy of the marginalized population.

The efforts of the late papition was caused by the excitement among the reformers, but also a frightening among conservatives, who accused him of dilution of church teachings. Experts say that he led to deep polarization within the church, and some members criticize Francis for the decentralization of the church body.

These experts point out that Lea XIV’s experience in the Roman Curia – the Church Government – probably a sales point among the conservative conclusions of voters seeking stability in the years to us.

What’s in the name?

While the first moves of Pope Leo XIV have yet to be discovered, his name choice is noticeable.

Bruni, Vatican spokesman, noted that “Leo” is a direct reference to the Pope Leo XIII, who adopted a new social doctrine in the late 19th century.

In 1891. Pope Leo XIII wrote an encycles – or paper letter – known as Rerum Novarum. He called Catholics to deal with “misery” by facing the working class, in the midst of rewriting industrialization and political changes like unification of Italy.

That encyclic was marked by radical new access to workers, and he launched the creation of Catholic newspapers, social cooperatives and banks – a social movement that is still alive today.

Bruni said the current Pope Leo hoped to draw parallel with that time, with his technological revolutions.

“It is not a casual reference to men and women of their work at the time of artificial intelligence,” Bruni explained.

Robert Orsi, professor of religious studies in the northwestern university, said that the choice of names could be marked and other historical parallels.

Leo XIII “strongly postponed the movement called American,” Ors said.

“This movement was a kind of nationalist impulse within Catholicism, with national churches that claim to have their own identity, their special ways of doing things,” he explained. “And I think by choosing the name Leo XIV, this pope was, no doubt, signaling back to global catholicism.”

Pullella also believes that it is west of that, while Leo XIV mentioned his parishioners in Peru, he avoided highlighting his ties with the United States.

“I think he was very significant that he didn’t yell in the United States. He didn’t say,” I’m from America. “He didn’t talk in English,” Pullell said.

It sent a message to “basically not owned by the United States,” Pullell added. Leo XIV was previously critical of the administration of the US President Donald Trump for issues such as nationalism and migration, just as late Pope Francis was.

Nevertheless, Ors predicted that the Vatican under the new Papama Leo be “subtle and wise” in how to deal with Trump in the years to come.