New Pope Wants Church to Be a Beacon of Light

POPE LEO XIV celebrated his first Mass on Friday in the Sistine Chapel where he was elected less than 24 hours earlier, warning of the dangers caused by a lack of faith and hoping the Catholic Church could be a beacon lighting the world's "dark nights."

- Vatican City, May 9

Leo, the former Cardinal Robert Prevost and the first US pope, was born in Chicago but spent two decades as a missionary in Peru, said a few words in English before continuing his homily in fluent Italian.

In the homily, Leo painted a picture of the Church he would like to see, saying he would seek to serve as the "faithful administrator" for the Church as a whole.

The new pope, who leads 1.4 billion Catholics around the world, acknowledged that the Christian faith is sometimes "considered absurd" and the preserve of "the weak and unintelligent."