“Peace be with you,” the 69-year-old Chicago-born Pope Leo XIV told the crowd in his first words as pontiff. Speaking in Italian, he called for world peace and recalled with gratitude the pontificate of his predecessor, the late Pope Francis.⁠ ⁠ Pope Leo, who rarely took an outspoken stance on the church’s polarizing issues when he was a cardinal, is expected to be a unifying figure after years of ideological tensions between the progressive and conservative wings of the Catholic Church.⁠ ⁠ Read more at the link in our bio.⁠ ⁠ Photos: Eloisa Lopez/Reuters, Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Images, Dylan Martinez/Reuters, Dan Kitwood/Getty Images, Murad Sezer/Reuters, Stoyan Nenov/Reuters