The speech, the clothes, the name: Three clues about new Pope's leadership
From his first moments on the balcony of St Peter's Basilica, Pope Leo XIV, formerly US Cardinal Robert Prevost, gave some important clues about the kind of leader the 1.4 billion-member Catholic Church can expect.
The first speech from Vatican balcony
Pope Leo's choice of languages and words put a clear emphasis on the need for peace, something the late Pope Francis often focused on. His first words in public were 'La pace sia con tutti voi!' (Peace be with you!).
Leo thanked his fellow cardinals for choosing him as 'the Successor of Peter', the first leader of the early Christian Church. He also evoked the saint who is one of the church's most influential theologians, describing himself as a 'son of Saint Augustine', who said: 'With you, I am a Christian and for you, a bishop.'
The message he was sending combined the intellectual heft of Pope Benedict XVI, while looking to the early days of Christianity and its original mission.
'This identifies him first as a fellow Christian – and in that sense, not just a leader above his flock,' the University of Dayton's Daniel Speed Thompson told The Conversation.
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The American pope spoke both Italian and the Spanish he used during decades spent ministering in Peru. He did not mention the US nor speak English. His choice of languages reflected his 'pastoral care', Vanderbilt University's Professor Bruce Morrill said.
'In some ways, it seems Leo's symbolic message was, 'I am not Francis', emphasising his continuity with previous popes. Yet in his address, he clearly praised and thanked Francis, and invoked his predecessor's emphasis on 'synodality': a church where all Catholics walk together,' Speed Thompson told The Conversation.
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