New Pope calls Church ‘a beacon to illuminate dark nights’ in first mass

May 10, 2025 00:00:00

Newly-elected Pope Robert Francis Prevost arrives on the main central loggia balcony of the St Peter's Basilica for the first time, after the cardinals ended the conclave, in The Vatican, on Thursday. — AFP

WASHINGTON, May 09 (BBC): Pope Leo XIV said the Church should be a "beacon" to reach areas suffering a "lack of faith" in his first mass as pontiff on Friday

The new Pope, Leo XIV, has called for the Catholic Church to "desperately" counter a lack of faith in his first mass at the Vatican.

Speaking the day after he was elected as the 267th Pope and first US leader of the Church, he warned that people were turning away from faith and instead to "technology, money, success, power, or pleasure".

Leo said he had been elected to be a "faithful administrator" of a Church that would act as a "beacon that illuminates the dark nights of this world".

The ascension of Robert Francis Prevost has been celebrated by the world's 1.4 billion Catholics, with joyous outbursts in his US homeland and in Peru, where he served for 20 years.

In his sermon on Friday, the new Pope said there were many settings where the Christian faith was considered "absurd" - with power, wealth, and technology dominating - but it was precisely there that missionary outreach was needed.