VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Leo XIV, history’s first U.S.-born pontiff, said Friday that his election was both a cross to bear and a blessing as he celebrated his first Mass as the head of the Catholic Church.

Leo spoke off-the-cuff in English in the Sistine Chapel to the cardinals who elected him to follow in the footsteps of Pope Francis, who put a commitment to social justice at the core of his papacy. He acknowledged the great responsibility they had placed on him before delivering a brief but dense homily on the need to joyfully spread Christianity in a world that often mocks it.

“You have called me to carry that cross and to be blessed with that mission, 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, as friends of Jesus, as believers, to announce the good news, to announce the Gospel,” he said.

It was in the same frescoed chapel that Leo, the Chicago-born Augustinian missionary Robert Prevost, was elected Thursday afternoon as the 267th pope, overcoming the traditional taboo against a pope from the United States because of the secular power the country wields.

Leo will be formally installed as pope at a Mass on May 18, the Vatican said Friday, and will preside over his first general audience May 21.

Leo had asked all heads of Vatican offices, who technically lost their jobs with the death of Pope Francis, to return to work until further notice, according to the Vatican. It said he wanted to take time for “reflection, prayer and dialogue” before taking any further decisions on confirming them definitively.

Two women delivered the readings of Scripture at the start of the Mass, perhaps an indication of Leo’s intention to continue Francis’ focus on expanding women’s role in the church. As a cardinal, Leo put into practice one of Francis’ most revolutionary reforms by having three women serve on the Vaticab board that vets bishop nominations.

Speaking in near-perfect Italian, Leo lamented that the Christian faith in many parts of the world is “considered absurd,” mocked or opposed in the face of temptations such as money, success and power. He complained that in many places Jesus is misunderstood, “reduced to a kind of charismatic leader or superman.”

“This is true not only among non-believers but also among many baptized Christians, who thus end up living, at this level, in a state of practical atheism,” he said. “A lack of faith 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 that afflict our society.”

The cardinals applauded as the Mass concluded. Leo was seen wearing simple black shoes — eschewing, as Francis did, the red loafers of the papacy preferred by some traditionalist popes.

Shortly thereafter, the Vatican said Leo had asked all Vatican leaders, who technically lost their jobs when Francis died April 21, to remain in their posts.

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, who had spent years as a missionary in Peru, to take over a complicated diocese there in 2014. Francis brought Prevost to the Vatican in 2023 to head of the Vatican’s powerful Dicastery for Bishops, which vets bishop nominations around the world and is one of the most important jobs in church governance.

Since arriving in Rome, Prevost had kept a low public profile but was well known to the men who count, and respected by those who worked with him. Significantly, he presided over one of the most revolutionary reforms Francis made, when he added three women to the voting bloc that decides which bishop nominations to forward to the pope.

In a 2023 interview with Vatican News, the then-cardinal said the women had enriched the process and reaffirmed the need for the laity to have a greater role in the church.

“Even the bishops of Peru called him the saint, the saint of the north, and he had time for everyone,” said the Rev. Alexander Lam, an Augustinian friar from Peru who knows the new pope.

The last pope to take the name Leo was an Italian who led the church from 1878 to 1903. Leo XIII softened the church’s confrontational stance toward modernity, especially science and politics, and laid the foundation for modern Catholic social thought. His most famous encyclical — a high-level papal teaching — addressed workers’ rights and capitalism at the beginning of the industrial revolution and was highlighted by the Vatican in explaining the new pope’s choice of name.

The previous Leo also had close ties to the Augustinian order: He rebuilt an ancient Augustinian church and convent near his hometown of Carpineto, outside Rome, that is still in use by the order today.

Vatican watchers said Prevost’s decision to name himself Leo was particularly significant given the Leo XIII’s legacy of social justice and reform, suggesting continuity with some of Francis’ chief concerns. Specifically, Leo cited one of Francis’ key priorities of making the Catholic Church more attentive to lay people and inclusive.

“He is continuing a lot of Francis’ ministry,’’ said Natalia Imperatori-Lee, the chair of religious studies at Manhattan University in the Bronx. She added that his election could send a message to the U.S. church, which has been badly divided between conservatives and progressives, with much of the opposition to Francis coming from there.

“I think it is going to be exciting to see a different kind of American Catholicism in Rome,’’ Imperatori-Lee said.

Leo said in a 2023 interview with Vatican News that the polarization in the church was a wound that needed to be healed.

“Divisions and polemics in the church do not help anything. We bishops especially must accelerate this movement towards unity, towards communion in the church,” he said.

Leo’s brother, John Prevost, was so shocked that his brother had been elected pope that he missed several phone calls from Leo during an interview Thursday with The Associated Press.

John Prevost described his brother, a fan of Wordle, as being very concerned for the poor and those who don’t have a voice. He said he expects him to be a “second Pope Francis.”

“He’s not going to be real far left and he’s not going to be real far right,” he added. “Kind of right down the middle.”

In his first hours as pope, Leo went back to his old apartment in the Sant’Uffizio Palace to see colleagues, according to selfies posted to social media. Vatican Media also showed him in the moments after his election praying in the Pauline Chapel before emerging on the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica to greet Rome and the world.

On Sunday, he is set to deliver his first noon blessing from the loggia and attend an audience with the media on Monday in the Vatican auditorium, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said.

Beyond that, his first foreign trip could be at the end of May: Francis had been invited to travel to Turkey to commemorate the 1,700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea, a landmark event in Christian history and an important moment in Catholic-Orthodox relations.

Franklin Briceño in Lima Peru, Obed Lamy and Hallie Golden in New Lenox, Illinois, Colleen Barry in Schiavon, Italy, and Vanessa Gera and Giada Zampano in Rome contributed.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

On at least one major issue, it’s not yet clear just how closely the new pope will adhere to the legacy established by his predecessor.

As Pink News reported, Pope Leo XIV hasn’t made many public statements on LGBTQ+ rights, but the ones he has expressed have been described by The New York Times as “less welcoming” than stances Pope Francis once embraced.

Per the Times, Leo gave remarks in 2012 that criticized Western news media and pop culture for promoting “sympathy for beliefs and practices that are at odds with the gospel.” Examples of such beliefs that Leo reportedly referenced included a “homosexual lifestyle” and “alternative families comprised of same-sex partners and their adopted children.”

As a bishop in Peru, Leo also deemed “the promotion of gender ideology” in schools “confusing,” noting that “it seeks to create genders that don’t exist.”

And in 2024, Leo adopted a more ambivalent stance regarding blessings for same-sex unions. While Francis backed the practice, Leo declined to oppose or endorse a document that supported them, according to The 19th.

During his tenure as head of the Catholic Church, Francis was known for ushering in a more inclusive period of leadership that embraced LGBTQ+ parishioners and clergy members in a new way.

“If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” Francis said of gay clergy members in 2013. He also pushed back against laws around the world that have criminalized homosexuality and met with LGBTQ+ Catholic groups, becoming one of the first popes to do so.

Francis’ leadership was widely heralded as a sea change compared to past papacies that promoted anti-gay views, though he did not fundamentally change doctrine on issues like same-sex marriage.

For now, LGBTQ+ Catholics are watching closely to see whether Leo — who emphasized inclusion broadly in his opening remarks — will maintain the same trajectory.

“We pray that in the 13 years that have passed, 12 of which were under the papacy of Pope Francis, that his heart and mind have developed more progressively on LGBTQ+ issues,” said Francis DeBernardo, the executive director of New Ways Ministry, an LGBTQ+ Catholic group, in a statement.

SCHIAVON, Italy (AP) — Pope Leo XIV ‘s choice of name signals a commitment to social justice that is very much in line with the late Pope Francis ’ global ministry.

“I think a lot us had a question mark when they elected an American, and then he selected the name Pope Leo XIV,” said Natalia Imperatori-Lee, the chair of religious studies at Manhattan University. “It really means to me he will continue the work of Leo XIII.”

Pope Leo XIII, who was head of the Catholic Church from 1878 to 1903, laid the foundation for modern Catholic social thought, most famously with his 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum, which addressed workers’ rights and capitalism at the dawn of the industrial age. He criticized both laissez-faire capitalism and state-centric socialism, giving shape to a distinctly Catholic vein of economic teaching.

The name “is a deep sign of commitment to social issues,” said Imperatori-Lee. “I think this (new) pope is saying something about social justice, by choosing this name, that it is going to be a priority. He is continuing a lot of Francis’ ministry.”

Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni confirmed that choice of the name Leo was a reference to Leo XIII and the social doctrine of the church, in particular the Rerum Novarum encyclical, considered the Catholic Church’s first social encyclical.

Another predecessor, Pope Leo I, was known for repelling the barbarian invasion of Atilla the Hun in 452 A.D. and dissuading him from sacking Rome through diplomacy, Italian Cardinal Mauro Piacenza told RAI Italian state TV. He also noted that Pope Leo XIII elevated the Sanctuary of Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompeii to a papal basilica in 1901.

Leo could also refer to Brother Leo, the 13th century friar who was a great companion of St. Francis of Assisi. By choosing such a name, the new pope could be signaling also a very strong continuity with Francis, who named himself after the saint.

For most of the Catholic Church’s first millennium, popes used their given names. The first exception was the 6th century Roman Mercurius, who had been named for a pagan god and chose the more appropriate name of John II.

The practice of adopting a new name became ingrained during the 11th century, a period of German popes who chose names of early church bishops out of “a desire to signify continuity,” according to Rev. Roberto Regoli, a historian at Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University.

For many centuries, new popes tended to choose the name of the pope who had elevated them to cardinal. John was the most popular, chosen by 23 popes, followed by Benedict and Gregory, each with 16.

It was from the mid-20th century that new popes began to choose names signaling the aim of their papacy, Regoli said.

AP writers Nicole Winfield and Vanessa Gera contributed from Rome.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

President Donald Trump congratulated Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost on Thursday, moments after he was announced as the first U.S.-born pope to lead the Roman Catholic Church.

“Congratulations to Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, who was just named Pope. It is such an honor to realize that he is the first American Pope,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “What excitement, and what a Great Honor for our Country. I look forward to meeting Pope Leo XIV. It will be a very meaningful moment!”

Prevost, who is originally from Chicago, is taking on the name Leo XIV and will succeed Pope Francis, who died at age 88 last month.

Trump recently drew the ire of the Catholic Church after claiming he’d like to be the new pope to replace Francis. In an AI-generated image that he shared online earlier this month, Trump donned papal regalia.

Various Catholic officials called the move “deeply offensive,” “sad” and “unfortunate.”

Trump and Pope Francis had vastly different perspectives on topics like immigration and climate change, with Francis frequently criticizing Trump’s politics, as The New York Times reported.

The pontiff was the more progressive of the two, notably reshaping the Church into a more inclusive institution, while Trump’s policies and rhetoric are more divisive. And, as such, Francis and Trump had a complicated relationship.

“A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian,” Francis said of Trump to journalists in February 2016, before Trump’s first term. “This is not the gospel.”

Francis, along with previous popes, tended to exhibit a selflessness and desire for peace that Trump seems to lack. Trump is also notoriously not well-versed on the Bible, despite claiming to be a Christian man.

Trump and Francis only met in person once, when Trump flew out to Vatican City in 2017 for what some reporters described as an at times “awkward” meeting.

It’s unclear what the relationship between Pope Leo XIV and the Trump administration will look like. But, several outlets have reported that an online social media account appearing to belong to the new pontiff shared an article link that condemns Vice President JD Vance.