This August 16, Pope Leo XIV meets his first 100 days of pontificate, a brief period that, however, has been marked by a remarkable intensity, especially by the celebration of the Jubileo de la Esperanza.
Next, we remember 10 moments that have marked the beginning of their pontificate:
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His first greeting to the world
One of the moments for which the Holy Father will be remembered is undoubtedly His first blessing City and the World From the central balcony of the Basilica of San Pedro.
Little more than an hour after the expected Blanca Fumata on May 8, the hitherto Cardinal Robert Prevost was presented for the first time to the world as Leo XIV.
The Holy Father read with a firm and visibly excited voice a speech quickly prepared with the ideas and messages that sprouted from their mind and heart shortly after being chosen by the cardinals and the Holy Spirit.
From the cobblestones of the Plaza de San Pedro, the cheers and shouts that acclaim his name, causing the new successor of St. Peter, could not contain tears.
During his speech, there were several moments received with particular enthusiasm. The faithful and pilgrims applauded more strongly when Pope León wished them peace:
“Peace is with you! This is the peace of risen Christ, unarmed peace, a disarming, humble and persevering peace, which comes from God, of God who loves us all unconditionally.”
The square also rumbled when Leon cited his predecessor, Pope Francis, and especially when he remembered with hope the faithful that “God loves us, God loves them all and evil will not prevail, we are all in the hands of God.”
“Escape” to the Sanctuary of the Virgen del Good Council
Pope Leo XIV visited by surprise only two days after being elected, the sanctuary of the mother of the good advice, located in Genazzano, a small town approximately one hour from Rome. It is a basilica entrusted to the order of San Agustín since the fifteenth century.
Several hundred people gathered in the Plaza del Sanctuary to receive Leo XIV with a “holiday reception.”
The pontiff then entered, greeted the religious, and stopped to pray first to the altar and then before the icon of Our Lady of Good Council. There, together with everyone, he recited the prayer of San Juan Paul II dedicated to this Marian devotion, which is of great importance in Italy.
He presided on foot his first procession of Corpus Christi
Concluded the celebration of Holy Mass in the solemnity of the body and blood of Christ, the Corpus Christiin the Basilica of San Juan de Letán, Pope Leo XIV presided over the procession of the Blessed Sacrament towards the Basilica of Santa María la Mayor.
The route of this procession, the first one that made as Pope of the Catholic Church, Leo XIV did it on foot, walking for about a kilometer through the Roman streets that separate both Catholic basilics.
A surprise to young people
The first 100 days of Pontificate of Pope Leo XIV have been undoubtedly marked by the Jubileo de la Esperanza.
Specifically, one of the most remarkable moments was when it appeared by surprise in the Plaza de San Pedro to greet the hundreds of thousands of participants from the Welcome Mass of the Jubilee of the Young people, on July 29.
After touring the crowded square, in which thousands of young people stirred the flags of their countries, the Holy Father directed them a few words from the main altar. “And today their voices, their enthusiasm, their screams; all are for Jesus Christ and they will listen to them until the end of the world,” said León XIV.
His arrival by helicopter to the esplanade of Tor Vergarta, where he was waiting for more than one million young people, will also be stored in the retina of those lucky ones who lived that great experience.
A tender visit to a sick young man
In a gesture of closeness and tenderness, Pope Leo XIV I visited Ignacio Gonzálvez by surprisea 15 -year -old Spanish -year -old emergency in Bambino Gesù hospital in Rome after a collapse during the jubilee.
His parents, Pedro Pablo and Carmen Gloria, along with his brothers Pedro Pablo and Adela, traveled immediately to Rome upon receiving the news, accompanying Ignacio at this difficult time, but with deep confidence in the Lord.
The afternoon of Monday, August 4, according to the Holy See, Pope Leo XIV personally visited the room in Ignacio’s intensive care unit, diagnosed with a lymphoma that affects its airways.
The Holy Father came in silence while the young man’s family prayed at the foot of his bed, and simply joined them in prayer.
The return to Castel Gandolfo and a visit to the nuns who pray every day for him
Leo XIV has become the sixteenth Pope to retire for a few days of summer to Castel Gandolfo, a fortified palace of the seventeenth century on the shores of Lake Albano.
On July 15, the Pontiff visited the Clarisas nuns that pray for him every day. After arriving at the monastery, he stopped in prayer in the chapel, sharing a moment of silence and recollection with the sisters, which he subsequently greeted one by one, highlighting that “it is beautiful that the Church knows your life, because it is a valuable testimony.”
This unexpected encounter left some images of tenderness, reflected in the faces of joy and gratitude of the sisters of Santa Clara, whose mission is to pray for the Pope, for the Church and for the whole reality of the city of the Vatican.
Your first audience with journalists
The first mass audience that Pope León granted after being elected was to journalists and media gathered in Rome.
In his speech, the Holy Father thanked the work of journalists looking for the truth, extolling the “courage of those who defend the dignity, justice and right of people to be informed, because only informed people can make free decisions.”
An encounter with Sinner and his passion for tennis
Pope Leo XIV is A Tennis Passionatea sport he has practiced since he was little. “I consider myself an amateur tennis player,” said Cardinal Robert Prevost in 2023.
Although his work as a prefect of Dicastery for bishops did not leave him much free time, Cardinal Prevost practiced this sport whenever he could.
A few steps from the building of the Holy Office of the Vatican, where he lived in recent years as a prefect of Dicastery, is the general curia of the Augustinians, where he almost daily came to lunch.
In the rear of the General Curia, in the gardens behind the Agustinian Patristic Institute, the order to which the Holy Father belongs has a tennis court, where the then Cardinal Prevost played in his spare time.
Pope Leo XIV received Jannik Sinner and his family in the Vatican on the morning of Wednesday, May 14. During the meeting, the Holy Father asked him for his last games in the tournament and, between jokes, he said: “And you would leave me in Wimbledon?”
Pope’s friends
In just two months after being chosen, Pope Leo XIV has gone “by surprise” on at least two occasions to visit the general curia of the Augustinians in Rome, where great friends of his live.
The second time was to celebrate the 70th birthday of the prior of the Augustinians, Fr. Alejandro Moral, with whom he maintains a deep friendship.
The two met at the Santa Monica International College, when both were young seminarians, shortly before Premost was ordered priest in 1982.
The photographs of lunch captured an atmosphere of joy, fraternity and closeness, testimony of a forged friendship over the years.
In the videos of the meeting broadcast on social networks, you can see how Leo XIV, smiling, remember that “being Pope does not mean or losing the Augustinian vocation. I am close to you and the order.”
Audience with Zelenski in Castel Gandolfo
Pope Leo XIV interrupted his summer rest in Castel Gandolfo to receive on July 9 To the president of UkraineVolodímir Zelenski.
This was his second meeting, after the greeting they exchanged in the Vatican on May 18, on the occasion of the Pontificate’s inauguration Mass. During the private encounter, both leaders talked about the ongoing conflict and “the urgency of traveling fair and lasting peace paths.”
Almudena Martínez-Bordiú
Graduated in journalism and advertising from the CEU San Pablo University of Madrid. Specialized in religious information in Spain since 2015. It has been a senior correspondent for ACI Press and Ewtn News at the Vatican for two years and is currently a correspondent for Europe based on Spain.