This morning Pope Leo XIV met for the first time officially with the College of Cardinals. The audience began with a joint prayer in Latin, the Pater noster y Ave Maria. During his address, the Holy Father expressed gratitude for the accompaniment of the cardinals in a painful but also grace-filled moment of transition. "The Lord, who has entrusted me with this mission, does not leave me alone with the burden of this responsibility," he assured, stressing the value of ecclesial communion.
In paying homage to his predecessor, Leo XIV evoked the figure of Francis as an example of dedication and simplicity: "The examples of many of my predecessors, like that of Pope Francis himself, with his style of total dedication to service and sober essentiality of life, have well demonstrated this".
The new Pontiff proposed to look at the recent conclave and the death of Francis as a paschal moment, "a stage of the long exodus through which the Lord continues to lead us towards the fullness of life".
Commitment to the Second Vatican Council
At the heart of his speech, Leo XIV reiterated his adherence to the path of ecclesial renewal initiated by the Second Vatican Council, citing the Evangelii gaudium of Francisco as a guide for this stage.
Specifically, he referred to the importance of the primacy of Christ, missionary conversion, collegiality and synodality, and dialogue with the contemporary world.
Explanation of its name
In a significant gesture, he revealed the reason for the pontifical name he chose: "Precisely because I felt called to pursue this path, I thought of taking the name Leo XIV. There are several reasons, but the main one is because Pope Leo XIII, with the historic Encyclical Rerum novarumThe Church has faced the social question in the context of the first great industrial revolution and today the Church offers to all its patrimony of social doctrine to respond to another industrial revolution and to the developments of artificial intelligence, which bring new challenges in the defense of human dignity, justice and work".
Pope Leo XIV makes it clear that his pontificate will be attentive to the great technological and social changes taking place in our time, particularly those linked to the global impact of technology.
A wish for the world
To close his message, Leo XIV He recalled words of St. Paul VI that echoed in the hall as a universal appeal: "May a great flame of faith and love pass over the whole world, enlightening all men of good will".
A desire that, he said, must be transformed into prayer and concrete commitment: "May these also be our feelings and, with the Lord's help, may we translate them into prayer and commitment".
