Pope Leo XIV on Friday celebrated his first mass as head of the Catholic Church at a private gathering in the Sistine Chapel with the cardinals who elected him to succeed Pope Francis.
Wearing white vestments, Leo blessed the cardinals as he approached the altar and Michelangelo’s “The Last Judgment” behind it.
It was in the same frescoed chapel that Leo, the Chicago-born missionary Robert Prevost, was elected on Thursday afternoon as the 267th pope and the first from the United States.
The 69-year-old American pope will later lead the Regina Caeli prayer from St. Peter’s central balcony at noon Sunday.
Leo will also be greeting journalists who covered the papal transition on Monday morning.
Earlier this year, Pope Francis, who died last month aged 88 after a 12-year papacy, elevated Prevost to the senior rank of cardinals.
