‘Peace be with you,’ says Pope Leo XIV in first words after being elected pontiff

Pope Leo XIV appears on the balcony of St Peter's Basilica after his election, at the Vatican, May 8, 2025. (AP/Gregorio Borgia)
Pope Leo XIV appears on the balcony of St Peter's Basilica after his election, at the Vatican, May 8, 2025. (AP/Gregorio Borgia)

In his first words, Pope Leo XIV, history’s first American pope, Robert Prevost, says, “Peace be with you.”

From the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica, he recalls that he was an Augustinian priest, but a Christian above all, and a bishop, “so we can all walk together.”

He speaks in Italian and then switches to Spanish, recalling his many years spent as a missionary and then archbishop of Chiclayo, Peru.

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