Not counting his meeting May 10 with the College of Cardinals, Pope Leo’s first special audience was reserved for members of the media who covered his election and the death of Pope Francis.

Father Franks remembers the new Roman pontiff as a highly intelligent, well-liked student, and the sort of classmate who would go out of his way to help everyone else, especially those in need.

The needy of the Eternal City were glad to have their cardinal back from conclave, Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, sharing news about the new pontiff — who was “chosen by the Holy Spirit,” the prelate said.

As the Catholic Church welcomes its first American pope, here are 10 things to know about Pope Leo XIV, formerly Cardinal Robert F. Prevost.

OSV News asked George Weigel — the American biographer of the pope from Poland, St. John Paul II — about what the first few days of papacy tell us about Pope Leo XIV, how as an American missionary he can influence the world and about his own hopes for the papacy.

With a huge and festive crowd gathered in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Leo XIV led his first Sunday recitation of the “Regina Coeli” prayer and urged all Catholics to pray for vocations, especially to the priesthood and religious life.

The Catholic community is alive, beautiful and strong, and it is up to its pastors to protect and nourish the faithful and to help bring God’s hope to the whole world, Pope Leo XIV said.

Pope Leo XVI will officially inaugurate his papacy with Mass in St. Peter’s Square May 18.

Where Christians are “mocked, opposed, despised or at best tolerated and pitied” is where the Catholic Church’s “missionary outreach is most desperately needed,” Pope Leo XIV said in his first homily as leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.

Full text of the first public homily of Pope Leo XIV, given at a Mass for the College of Cardinals in the Sistine Chapel May 9, 2025.