In his first mass as the new leader of the Catholic Church on Friday, Pope Leo XIV warned materialism and cautioned that losing one’s faith can have “dramatic side effects.”
These include finding that “the meaning of life is lost, mercy is forgotten, human dignity is violated in the most dramatic ways, the crisis of the family and many other wounds from which our society is suffering significantly,” he said, speaking in Italian.
The comments came one day after Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost was announced as the first US pontiff, with white smoke emerging from the Sistine Chapel chimney after four rounds of voting in the papal conclave.
Now Pope Leo XIV, he presided over the first mass as leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics on Friday morning, flanked by cardinals in the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel.
Leo was clad in a long white robe and wearing a traditional mitre. He wore dark shoes, not the red shoes worn by many previous popes, which his predecessor Francis had also eschewed.
The 69-year-old said faith is regarded as something “absurd,” as something for “weak and unintelligent people.”
Faith is often replaced by other things such as technology, money, success, power and pleasure, he said.
He added that the figure of Jesus Christ is often seen merely as a “charismatic leader or superhuman.” This, he said, was effectively a form of atheism.
Chicago-born Leo, 267th pontiff in two millennia of Church history, is considered a centrist who does not shy away from criticizing politics. US President Donald Trump was among the first to congratulate him, calling it a “great honor” for the United States.
However Prevost had repeatedly criticized the policies of the Trump administration. Before his appointment as a cardinal, he spent many years as a missionary and bishop in Peru, where he also holds citizenship.
There is much anticipation about whether he will continue the cautious reform course of the Argentinian Francis – or be deferential to conservative cardinals who want a more traditional direction. In Europe, the Catholic Church has recently seen a significant decline in membership, driven by numerous abuse scandals. However, the number of Catholics is growing on other continents.