VATICAN CITY (RNS) — At a Mass in the Sistine Chapel on Friday (May 9) attended by the cardinals who had elected him their leader the day before, Pope Leo XIV laid out his missionary vision for the church. But first he told the cardinals that his leadership would continue to depend on them.
“Through the ministry of Peter, you have called me to carry the cross and to be blessed with that mission,” he said in English before he began his homily, “and I know I can rely on each and every one of you to walk with me as we continue, as a church, as a community of friends of Jesus, as believers, to announce the good news, to announce the Gospel.”
Drawing from the day’s reading, Leo XIV said his election was “for the sake of the entire mystical body of the Church” so that she may be “an ark of salvation sailing through the waters of history and a beacon that illuminates the dark nights of this world.”
As he preached in the frescoed hall, painted by the famed artists of the Italian Renaissance, Leo XIV said this goal can be achieved “not so much through the magnificence of her structures or the grandeur of her buildings — like the monuments among which we find ourselves — but rather through the holiness of her members.”
Leo said society today is divided between those who discard faith as a backward belief “meant for the weak and unintelligent,” and those who portray Jesus as merely a “charismatic leader or superman.”
The first place their trust in “technology, money, success, power or pleasure,” he said, while the second end up living “in a state of practical atheism.”
Preaching the gospel in these contexts is “not easy,” Leo said, noting that “believers are mocked, opposed, despised or at best tolerated and pitied.” But it’s precisely for this reason that “our missionary outreach is desperately needed,” said the pope, a member of the missionary Augustinian order who spent two decades in Peru.
A world lacking faith, he said, “is often tragically accompanied by the loss of meaning in life, the neglect of mercy, appalling violations of human dignity, the crisis of the family and so many other wounds.”
He remembered his predecessor, Pope Francis, who taught believers “to bear witness to our joyful faith in Jesus the Savior.”
He returned to his understanding of how leadership in the church works, honed in his 12 years as head of the Order of St. Augustine, a sprawling organization with missionaries in 47 countries around the globe.
The ministry of authority, he said, “is to move aside so that Christ may remain, to make oneself small so that he may be known and glorified, to spend oneself to the utmost so that all may have the opportunity to know and love him.”
Pope Leo XIV Election in Photos
By Claire Giangravé · May 8, 2025
Cardinals elected Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost as the 267th pope of the Roman Catholic Church on May 8, 2025, at the Vatican. Prevost has taken the name Pope Leo XIV.
Newly elected Pope Leo XIV appears at the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, Thursday, May 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
People wave flags in St. Peter’s Square after the election of the 267th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church, at the Vatican, Thursday, May 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
A drone used for TV broadcast is attacked by a seagull above St. Peter’s Square where 133 cardinals are gathering on the second day of the conclave to elect the successor of the late Pope Francis, at the Vatican, Thursday, May 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
People watch a giant screen showing Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa taking oath inside the Sistine Chapel during the cardinals' conclave to elect a new pope, at the Vatican, Wednesday, May 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
Swiss Guards march after a new pope was elected when 133 cardinals gathered on the second day of the conclave to select a successor to the late Pope Francis, at the Vatican, Thursday, May 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
White smoke billows from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel during the conclave to elect a new pope, at the Vatican, Thursday, May 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Newly elected Pope Leo XIV appears at the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, Thursday, May 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
People in St. Peter's Square await the announcement of the 267th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church, at the Vatican, Thursday, May 8, 2025. (RNS photo/Aleja Hertzler-McCain)
Tables and chairs line the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican in preparation for the conclave in early May 2025. (Photo © Vatican Media)
Faithful hold a banner after white smoke billows from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel during the conclave to elect a new pope, at the Vatican, Thursday, May 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
FILE - Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, pictured at the Vatican, Sept. 30, 2023, has been elected the 267th pope on May 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Riccardo De Luca, File)
People react after Cardinal Dominique Mamberti announced the election of Cardinal Robert F. Prevost as the 267th pope, choosing the name of Pope Leo XIV, at the Vatican, Thursday, May 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Pope Leo XIV appears on the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica after his election, at the Vatican, Thursday, May 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)
Spanish nuns gather near the Vatican, in Rome, on Wednesday, May 7, 2025, on the day cardinals sequester themselves at the Vatican for the start of a conclave to elect the 267th Roman pontiff, a successor to Pope Francis. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
Faithful react as white smoke billows from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel during the conclave to elect a new pope, at the Vatican, Thursday, May 8, 2025. (RNS photo/Aleja Hertzler-McCain)
Cardinals following the election of Cardinal Robert F. Prevost as the 267th pope, choosing the name of Pope Leo XIV, at the Vatican, Thursday, May 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Visitors await a smoke signal near St. Peter’s Square, rear, on the first day of the conclave, at the Vatican, Wednesday, May 7, 2025. (RNS photo/Tom Reese)
The official Vatican document attesting the acceptance by Pope Leo XIV, formerly, Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, of his election, Friday, May 9, 2025. (Vatican Media)
Faithful watch a giant screen showing images of cardinals entering the conclave, in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, May 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Tables and chairs line the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican in preparation for the conclave in early May 2025. (Photo © Vatican Media)
A nun holds a US flag during the speech of the newly elected Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican, Thursday, May 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
A man gives the last touch to a red drape wrapped around a column of the central lodge of St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, Monday, May 5, 2025, before the conclave starting on May 7, where cardinals will elect the 267th pontiff of the Catholic Church. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Cardinal Robert Prevost appears on the central loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica after being chosen the 267th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church, choosing the name of Pope Leo XIV, at the Vatican, Thursday, May 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
In his greeting to the crowds in St. Peter’s Square immediately after his election on Thursday, Leo praised Francis’ project to create a church built on synodality, which called for leadership roles for non-clergy, inclusion and transparency in the church’s structures.
A hint of this model of leadership was revealed shortly after the Mass, when a statement was released announcing that the heads of the Vatican’s governing departments, who by church law are automatically dismissed when a pope dies, will remain in their positions for the time being.
“The Holy Father wishes, in fact, to reserve himself some time for reflection, for prayer and dialogue before making any definitive appointment or confirmation,” the statement read.
