This picture taken and launched on Could 10, 2025 by The Vatican Media reveals Pope Leo XIV paying his respects to late Pope Francis in entrance of his tomb at Santa Maria Maggiore Basilica in Rome. (Photograph by Handout / VATICAN MEDIA / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE – MANDATORY CREDIT “AFP PHOTO / VATICAN MEDIA” – NO MARKETING – NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS – DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS
VATICAN CITY, Holy See — Leo XIV prayed on the tomb of Pope Francis on Saturday, simply two days after being elected new head of the Catholic Church and hours after vowing to humbly observe in his predecessor’s footsteps.
Vatican Information revealed a photograph of the white-robed pope kneeling earlier than Francis’s easy marble tomb on the basilica in central Rome, the place the devoted are nonetheless queuing to pay their respects.
The shock go to to Santa Maria Maggiore, a papal basilica in Rome beloved of Francis, who died on April 21 at age 88, capped a busy day for Leo.
Earlier Saturday, Leo had praised Francis’s “full dedication to service” in a gathering on the Vatican with cardinals. He informed them he meant to observe within the path of his predecessor throughout his preach.
The assembly with the School of Cardinals — some 133 of whom elected him pontiff Thursday — revealed some clues as to the priorities and elegance of the largely unknown Augustinian.
Leo defined his new alternative of identify mirrored a dedication to social justice, whereas describing himself as St Peter’s “unworthy Successor.”
Born Robert Francis Prevost, the primary US pope is now charged with main the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.
READ: From Cebu to Rome: Pope Leo XIV’s deep ties with the Philippines
Visits Augustinian shrine
He informed cardinals a pontiff was “a humble servant of God and of his brothers and sisters, and nothing greater than this.”
He praised Francis’s “full dedication to service and to sober simplicity of life,” based on a transcript of the gathering revealed by the Vatican.
“Allow us to take up this treasured legacy and proceed on the journey, impressed by the identical hope that’s born of religion,” he informed the group, after they welcomed him with a standing ovation upon his arrival.
Among the many Church priorities championed by Francis, Leo mentioned he meant to uphold “loving take care of the least and the rejected” and his “brave and trusting dialogue with the up to date world in its numerous parts and realities.”
He additionally talked about “the missionary conversion of all the Christian group” and the efforts of Francis to open the Church to welcome extra voices.
Saturday afternoon Leo paid a “personal go to” to an necessary shrine for the Augustinian order, the Mom of Good Counsel Sanctuary in Genazzano, about 50 kilometres (31 miles) southeast of Rome, the Vatican mentioned.
READ: New pope led Order of St. Augustine devoted to the poor, service
Justice, labor
Leo informed cardinals he selected his papal identify as a homage to Leo XIII, a Nineteenth-century pontiff who had defended staff’ rights.
His namesake, he mentioned, had “addressed the social query within the context of the primary nice Industrial Revolution.”
At the moment, the Church’s social instructing is required “in response to a different Industrial Revolution and to developments within the subject of synthetic intelligence that pose new challenges for the defence of human dignity, justice and labour,” Leo added.
Leo is the primary Augustinian pope, a non secular order with a robust deal with missionary outreach and group, which specialists say encourages collaboration and dialogue earlier than decision-making.
In his first homily to cardinals on Friday, Leo urged the Church to revive the religion of tens of millions around the globe.
Lack of religion, he warned, usually went hand-in-hand with “the lack of which means in life, the neglect of mercy, appalling violations of human dignity, the disaster of the household and so many different wounds that afflict our society.”
The previous missionary in Peru, who was made cardinal by Francis in 2023, shouldn’t be a globally recognised determine. He had nonetheless been on many Vatican watchers’ lists of potential popes forward of the conclave.
Over the approaching days his actions and phrases can be carefully scrutinised.
‘Deep religion’
On Sunday, Leo returns to the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica the place he was first launched to the world to offer the Regina Coeli prayer to assembled devoted within the sq. beneath him.
Leo plans to satisfy with international diplomats to the Vatican subsequent week. The next Sunday, Could 18, he’ll preside over his inauguration mass at St Peter’s Sq., which is anticipated to attract world leaders and hundreds of pilgrims.
Cardinals have described Leo as forged within the mould of Francis, with a dedication to the poor and deprived, and a deal with these hailing from further-flung areas of the Church.
However they are saying his method could also be much less direct than the generally impulsive Francis, a progressive who shook up the Church throughout his 12-year papacy.
In an interview with Italian day by day La Stampa revealed Saturday, US Cardinal Timothy Dolan, a conservative archbishop of New York, known as the brand new pope “a person of deep religion, rooted in prayer and able to listening.
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“That is what provides us hope; not a political programme or a communicative technique however the concrete testimony of the Gospel,” mentioned Dolan.
