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Pope Leo XIV celebrated his first Mass on Friday (May 9, 2025) after his historic election as the first North American pope, meeting with the Cardinals who chose him to lead the Catholic Church and follow in Pope Francis' reform-minded footsteps.

The new Chicago-born Augustinian missionary Robert Prevost Leo XIV surprised the world on Thursday (May 8, 2027) when he emerged on the loggia of St. Peter's Basilica, overcoming the traditional prohibition against a Pope from the United States. The 69-year-old wore the traditional red cape, which Pope Francis had eschewed on his election in 2013, and trappings of the papacy, suggesting a return to some degree of rule-following after the former Pope’s unorthodox pontificate.

But in naming himself Leo, the new Pope could also have wanted to signal a strong line of continuity: Brother Leo was the 13th century friar who was a great companion to St. Francis of Assisi, the late Pope's namesake.

Pope Francis, the first Latin American Pope, clearly had his eye on Prevost and in many ways saw him as his heir apparent. He sent Prevost to take over a complicated diocese in Peru in 2014, then brought him to the Vatican in 2023. Earlier this year, Pope Francis elevated Prevost into the senior ranks of Cardinals, giving him prominence going into the conclave that few other Cardinals had.