Cardinal Robert Prevost, a missionary who spent his career ministering in Peru and leads the Vatican’s powerful office of bishops, was elected the first American pope in the 2,000-year history of the Catholic Church.
Prevost, 69, took the name Leo XIV.
In his first words as pope he said, “Peace be with you”, offering a message of peace and dialogue “without fear.”
From the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica, history’s first American pope recalled he was an Augustinian priest, but that he was above all a Christian above all and a bishop, “So we can all walk together.”
He spoke in Italian and then switched to Spanish, recalling his many years spent as a missionary and then archbishop of Chiclayo, Peru. (PTI)
