The event should again attract thousands of tourists and faithful. Léon XIV Fold for the first time this Sunday at the Rite of Dominical Prayer from the Saint-Pierre Basilica, in Rome. At noon (10 hours GMT), The new pope Installed at the Balcony of the Basilica recited the “Regina Caeli” (“queen of heaven”), a prayer to Marie pronounced during the time Pascal. He took advantage of it, in a short speech then, to call for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages, as well as a “fair” and “sustainable” peace in Ukraine. Leon XIV also called on the “big people in the world” to arrest war. In another register, he underlined the “need” of vocations in the church, by calling for giving “credible models” to young people.
After the “Habemus Papam” which presented it to the world on Thursday, it was its second public appearance as head of the Catholic Church. Sunday prayer was all the more awaited that this weekly meeting is often an opportunity for the Pope to express himself on major subjects overlooking international news. The election of this American pope, the first in history, Classified among the moderates, was interpreted by some as a distance from the identity Christianity carried by several members of the Trump government.
Friday, Léon XIV had celebrated A first mass in the Sistine Chapelreserved for cardinals. On Saturday, he received the cardinals, high dignitaries of the church responsible for assisting him in his government, for a speech addressing his main priorities. He notably paid tribute to the “precious inheritance” of François, who died on April 21 at the age of 88.
The pope elected on the second day of the cardinals conclave also explained His choice of name “Léon” by a reference to Léon XIII, father in the 19th century of the “social doctrine” of the Church which insists on solidarity and dignity. “Today the Church offers all its heritage of social doctrine to respond to another industrial revolution and the developments of artificial intelligence, which pose new challenges for the defense of human dignity, justice and work,” he said.
Tribute to François
Pope Léon XIV also collected on Saturday On the grave of his predecessor François. A photo published by Vatican News, the official Vatican information website, shows it kneeling in front of the sober tomb from François to Sainte-Marie-Majeure, a papal basilica of Rome that the Argentinian pope was like.
In the process, the new spiritual leader of the 1.4 billion Catholics went on a private visit to an Augustinian sanctuary near Rome. This posed man, who spent more than half of his missionary life in Peru of which he took nationality, had claimed in his inaugural speech his membership to the order of Saint-Augustinof which he was the prior general from 2001 to 2013.
Sunday prayer will open a sequence of intense consultations for the head of the Catholic Church, who will receive representatives of the international press on a hearing on Monday, then Friday the diplomatic corps.
The solemn mass of her enthronement will be held on Sunday, May 18, on Saint-Pierre square, in the presence of several foreign leaders or their representatives. During this celebration he will receive the symbols of the papal power: in particular the pallium (a sort of stole reserved for major celebrations) and his ring called “fisherman’s ring”.
