First days can result in instructions for leadership style

Not long after greeting crowds from the balcony with a view of St Peter’s Square on Thursday evening, Pope Leo XIV returned to the Sant’uffizio Palace, where he lived for the past two months.

He was met by a jubilant group of staff and former colleagues, all liked to shake his hand and congratulate him.

A young girl gave him a Bible to bless and sign. “Of course, although I have to try out my new signature,” said Paus Leo with a smile. “The old one no longer makes sense.”

He only stopped Robert Francis Prevost a few hours earlier, when he was chosen as pope. While he took the name Leo XIV, a new life for the 69-year-old born in Chicago started Cardinal.

But details about how Pope Leo will want to run the Catholic Church are still scarce, and so in the coming days and weeks any small indication – from his clothing to his accommodation – will be investigated.

The research started as soon as he stepped on the balcony and gave the crowd a glimpse of the robes he chose for his first performance.

The golden cross around his neck that caught the evening light was seen as a first sign that he left the simplicity of the simple silver pendant of his predecessor; The embroidered stable and red mozzetta confirmed that impression.

Subsequently, the fact that the homily he had delivered to cardinals in the Sixtine Chapel on Friday morning was also – instead of improvising, sent a signal that “Leo would be more closely tailored to tradition than Francis,” said Austen Ivanigh, a Catholic writer and commentator.

But different events in the coming days and weeks give Pope Leo a further chance to outline the priorities of his pontificate.

On Monday he will hold an audience with the media and on May 18 he will celebrate a solemn inaugural mass on St Peter’s Square.

As part of that mass, he will deliver a homily in the presence of countless heads of state and dignitaries.

In his inaugural homily 2013, Pope Francis “already asked those who have responsibility positions in economic, political and social life” to “be protectors of creation, of God’s plan … of each other and of the environment”.

So that moment can also give indications about the things that are dear to the heart of Pope Leo.

The new paus choice of accommodation will also be important.

Francis made the choice to choose to live in the simple Casa Santa Marta Guesthouse, which was seen as a revolutionary, but Leo can very well decide to follow in the footsteps of almost all his predecessors and to live in the Grand Apostolic Palace.

“He was chosen less than a day ago; let’s give him the time to decide,” said Vatican sources quoted by the Italian media.

“These are all important choices,” Ivereigh added.

“In the coming days we will learn more and more about it – the first week of the pontificate is a constant revelation.”

Meanwhile, in the absence of details about his future as Leo XIV, his fragments of the old life of the Pope as Robert Prevost from all over the world are satisfactory.

This is the case Especially in his native Chicago And his adopted home country of Peru, of which he became a citizen in 2015.

On one photo he gets a large handmade birthday card written in Spanish and surrounded by cakes and balloons.

A video that was recorded when he left Peru for Rome, in which he says he would miss the “joy” of Peru and staples of local cuisine as Ceviche would be missed by users of South American social media.

“The pope is Peruvian; God loves Peru,” said Peruvian President Dina Boluarte.

American tourists Ambling on St Peter’s Square On the day after the elections there were more restraint and a bit of the news that the new Pope comes from the US.

“I am still surprised that they have chosen an American to be honest,” said Chicagoan Kerry, who is on a honeymoon in Rome.

She admitted that she didn’t know much about the new pope yet, but was happy with rumors that he is a fan of the White SOX baseball team.

Asked how she thought Pope Leo felt today, she laughed: “He must be really overwhelmed; I bet he didn’t sleep any wink!”

Her husband Joseph agreed: “If you were chosen, you will come here as a cardinal for the conclave, but then things never go back to the way they were,” he said.

But he felt that the new pope seemed to be “a man of trust, prayer and humility”.

“I just pray that he shows the world what a man of God can do.”

The newlyweds posed for a photo with the newspapers of the day and then walked away to St Peter’s Square, beautiful in the spring sun.