{"id":136746,"date":"2025-05-09T05:28:54","date_gmt":"2025-05-09T05:28:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/full-text-of-pope-leo-xivs-first-message-peace-be-with-you-usa-today\/"},"modified":"2025-05-09T05:28:54","modified_gmt":"2025-05-09T05:28:54","slug":"full-text-of-pope-leo-xivs-first-message-peace-be-with-you-usa-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/full-text-of-pope-leo-xivs-first-message-peace-be-with-you-usa-today\/","title":{"rendered":"Full text of Pope Leo XIV's first message: 'Peace be with you' – USA Today"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cardinal Robert Prevost<\/a> from Chicago, who has both U.S. and Peruvian citizenship, was elected to be the new\u00a0leader of the Catholic Church<\/a>, becoming the first pope from either country and taking the name Leo XIV.
Pope\u00a0Leo\u00a0appeared on the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica on Thursday evening local time after white smoke had billowed from a chimney atop the Sistine Chapel, signifying the\u00a0133 cardinal electors\u00a0had chosen a new leader for the 1.4 billion-member Catholic Church.
“Peace be with you all,” he told the cheering crowd, speaking in fluent Italian. He also spoke in Spanish during his brief address, but did not say anything in English.
The following is a Reuters’ translation of Pope Leo XIV’s first speech<\/a> from the Vatican’s balcony after winning the election.
“Peace be with all of you!
Dearest\u00a0brothers and sisters, this is the first\u00a0greeting of the Risen Christ, the good shepherd who gave his life for God’s flock. I too would like this greeting of peace to enter your heart, to reach your families, to all people, wherever they are, to all peoples, to the whole earth. Peace be with you!
This is the peace of the Risen Christ, an unarmed and disarming peace, humble and persevering. It comes from God, God who loves us all unconditionally. We\u00a0still have in our ears that weak but always courageous voice of Pope Francis<\/a> who blessed Rome!
The pope who blessed Rome gave his blessing to the world, to the entire world, that Easter morning.
Allow me to follow up on that same blessing: God cares for us, God loves all of us, and evil will not prevail! We are all in God’s hands. Therefore, without fear, united hand in hand with God and among ourselves, let us move forward.
We are disciples of Christ. Christ\u00a0goes before us. The world needs His light. Humanity needs Him as the bridge to reach God and His love.
Help us too, then help each other to build bridges – with dialogue, with encounter, uniting all of us to be one people always in peace. Thank you, Pope Francis!
I also want to thank all the fellow cardinals who chose me to be the Successor of Peter and to walk with you, as a united Church always seeking peace, justice – always trying to work as men and women faithful to Jesus Christ, without fear, to proclaim the Gospel, to be missionaries.
I am a son of Saint Augustine, (an) Augustinian, who said: “With you I am a Christian and for you a bishop.” In this sense, we can all walk together towards that homeland that God has prepared for us.
To the Church of Rome, a special greeting! We must\u00a0seek together how to be a missionary Church, a Church that builds bridges (and) dialogue, always open to receive (people), like this\u00a0square, with open arms – everyone, all those who need our charity, our presence, dialogue and love.
(Switching into Spanish) And if you allow me also, a word, a greeting to all those, and particularly to my beloved diocese of Chiclayo, in Peru, where a faithful people have accompanied their bishop, have shared their faith, and have given so much, so much to continue being a faithful Church of Jesus Christ.
(Switching back to Italian) To all of you, brothers and sisters of Rome, of Italy, of the whole world, we want to be a synodal Church, a Church that walks, a Church that always seeks peace, that always seeks charity, that always seeks to be close especially to those who suffer.
Today is the day of the Supplication to Our Lady of Pompeii. Our Mother Mary always wants to walk with us, to\u00a0stay close, to help us with her intercession and her love.
So I would like to pray together with you. Let us pray together for this new mission, for the whole Church, for peace in the world, and let us ask for this special grace from Mary, our Mother.”<\/p>\n

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Cardinal Robert Prevost from Chicago, who has both U.S. and Peruvian citizenship, was elected to be the new\u00a0leader of the Catholic Church, becoming the first pope from either country and taking the name Leo XIV.Pope\u00a0Leo\u00a0appeared on the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica on Thursday evening local time after white smoke had billowed from a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":136747,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-136746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}