New Pontiff went to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Bom Council, in Genazzano, about 50 kilometers from Rome
He visited him on Saturday (10) the tomb of his predecessor, Francisco, in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maior, in Rome. The visit occurred two days after his election as head of. Earlier, the new pontiff has also made its first official trip since taking office, visiting the Shrine of Our Lady of Bom Council, in Genazzano, about 50 kilometers from the Italian capital. The choice of site has symbolic value: Leo XIV belongs to the Order of St. Augustine, responsible for the sanctuary.
The visit to the tomb of reinforces the continuity tone with the previous pontificate, also present in its first official speech, made during a meeting with cardinals in the Vatican. At the meeting, the Peruvian American Pope highlighted his commitment to the values defended by Francis and to the tradition of the Church’s social doctrine.
During the speech, Leo XIV explained the choice of his papal name, in reference to Leo XIII, author of the encyclical Of the revolutionary (1891), which marked the beginning of the social doctrine of the Catholic Church. “The Church today offers its heritage of social doctrine to respond to another industrial revolution and the challenges of artificial intelligence, which endangers human dignity, justice and work,” said the 69 -year -old Pope, born in Chicago and with missionary trajectory in Peru.
On Friday (9), in his first Mass as Pope, he criticized what he classified as the decline of faith in the face of “money, power and pleasure.” On Thursday night (8), shortly after his election, Leo XIV made his first public appearance of the balcony of the Basilica of St. Peter, addressing the crowd in Italian and Spanish.
This Saturday, he also paid tribute to Pope Francis, killed on April 21 at the age of 88. “The Pope, from St. Peter to me, his unworthy successor, is a humble servant of God and his brothers, and nothing more than that. The examples of many of my predecessors, like Pope Francis, have clearly demonstrated it,” he said. He highlighted the sober style and total dedication to the service lived by Francisco, asking for a return to this “valuable inheritance”.
The Entronization Mass of Leo XIV is scheduled for May 18, in the Basilica of St. Peter. The new Pope assumes the leadership of the Catholic Church in the face of challenges such as the vocational crisis, the role of women and the cases of sexual abuse. His appointment was received with caution by victim’s defense groups, who accuse him of confidentiality allegations of abuse in processes he supervised.
*With information from AFP
Posted by Felipe Cerqueira
