Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
LAST UPDATE | 10 May
POPE LEO XIV visited the tomb of his predecessor Francis this evening.
Vatican News reported that Leo XIV prayed before Francis’s tomb and the icon of the Virgin Mary held within the Santa Maria Maggiore, Salus Populi Romani.
Before and after every papal visit, Francis prayed before the icon and also made an unscheduled stop to the icon on his way home from the hospital.
Vatican News published a photo of the white-robed American pope kneeling before Francis’s simple marble tomb at Santa Maria Maggiore, the papal basilica in central Rome beloved of the Argentine pontiff, who died on 21 April.
Earlier on Saturday, less than 48 hours after he was elected Pope, Leo XIV made his first visit outside the Vatican, travelling to the Shrine of the Mother of Good Counsel in Genazzano, just outside Rome.
Pope Leo visits the shrine of Our Lady of Good Counsel in Genazzano, outside of Rome.
— Vatican News (@VaticanNews) May 10, 2025
The sanctuary has been run by the Augustinian Order (of which Pope Leo was a part) since the Middle Ages. pic.twitter.com/Vq53bodvFS
Leo is also the first Augustinian friar to become pope and the shrine has been run by the Augustinians since 1200.
The visit capped a busy day for the 69-year-old Chicago-born pope, who met with the College of Cardinals this morning.
During the meeting with cardinals, Leo XIV revealed the reason behind his papal name.
He also called for the Church to provide a response to the challenges posed by Artificial Intelligence.
On Thursday evening, the white smoke billowed from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel and around an hour later, former Cardinal Robert Prevost was introduced from the central balcony of St Peter’s Basilica as Pope Leo XIV.
Earlier, he met with the College of Cardinals and remarked before that this was an “opportunity that many of you had asked for”.
“A sort of dialogue with the College of Cardinals to hear what advice, suggestions, proposals, concrete things, which have already been discussed in the days leading up to the conclave.”
The new pope, the first American to hold the office, also praised the Camerlengo, Irish-born Cardinal Kevin Farrell, for the “important and demanding work he has done throughout the period of the Vacant See”.
He also praised Pope Francis for his “example of complete dedication to service and to sober simplicity of life”.
He also called on the Church to “renew our complete commitment to the path the Church has now followed for decades in the wake of the Second Vatican Council”.
And in a move that could enrage conservatives, Leo XIV added that Francis had “masterfully and concretely” set out the path for the Church and also called for a “growth in synodality”.
This is in reference to the historic Synod on Synodality undertaken by Francis, which sought to give laypeople a greater say in the Church and its governance.
Leo XIV himself participated in the Synod but some high-ranking members of the Church rebelled, and even held their own counter-Synod to undermine Francis.
Meanwhile the new pope said he chose the papal name Leo “mainly because of Pope Leo XIII’s historic Encyclical Rerum Novarum, which addressed the social question in the context of the first great industrial revolution”.
This document, a response to the state of industrial society in the late 19th century, explicitly outlined worker’s rights to a fair wage, safe working conditions and the right to belong to a trade union.
The new pope said this document “addressed the social question in the context of the first great industrial revolution”.
Leo XIV remarked that he sees himself “called to continue in this same path” because today, there is “another industrial revolution in the field of artificial intelligence that pose new challenges for the defence of human dignity, justice and labour”.
He said the Church can “offer to everyone the treasury of her social teaching in response” to these challenges.
Elsewhere, the new pope will make his first public appearance since being elected as pontiff tomorrow at noon.
He will lead the Regina Caeli (Queen of Heaven) prayer.
Usually, the Angelus prayer would be said on a Sunday but during the Easter season – the 50-day period between Easter Sunday and Pentecost – this is replaced by the prayer dedicated to Mary.
Pope Leo XIV will then deliver a reflection at the end of the Regina Caeli prayer.
have your say