NZ bishops celebrate election of Pope Leo XIV

The Catholic Church in Aotearoa New Zealand has received news of the election of Pope Leo XIV with great joy.

Bishop Steve Lowe, president of the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference, says there is trust in the Holy Spirit and the College of Cardinals that Pope Leo XIV is the right man to lead the global Church at this time.

On Friday morning NZ time, Cardinal Robert Prevost OSA was elected the new Pope, and took the name Leo.

He becomes the first North American Pope, but has spent much of his ministerial life overseas, predominantly in Peru. He is a member of a religious order – the Augustinians – and becomes the second consecutive Pope to have such a background, following the Jesuit Pope Francis.

“While a new Pope is often unknown to most people around the world, we know from his experience in leadership in Latin America, as a leader within his religious order and as prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Bishops that Pope Leo understands the Church and its needs,” Bishop Lowe said.

Bishop Lowe said the choice of the name Leo could offer a glimpse into the type of pope he seeks to be.

“In the coming days, we will learn more about Pope Leo XIV, but the last Pope to take this name helped develop some of the Church’s key social teachings,” he said.

A transformative encyclical letter, Rerum Novarum, was published in 1891, and has been the inspiration of many teaching documents in the years since.

In his blessing to the crowds in St Peter’s Square, Pope Leo spoke about the importance of Catholics being willing to proclaim the Gospel, work for justice and peace, to be missionaries in the world.

New Zealand Catholics will immediately take up the practice of praying for the Pope in every Mass celebrated throughout the country.

“In parishes, in Catholic schools, in our outreach ministries and in Catholic homes, prayers will be offered for our new Holy Father, that God will provide him with all the strength needed for this immense task,” Bishop Lowe said.

“There is a real sense among the faithful that the popes that have been elected in recent decades have had the right attributes to lead the Church at that moment. We trust that will be the same with Pope Leo XIV.”