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Pope Leo XIV conducts Mass in the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican, May 9, 2025.
International Relations and Cooperation Minister Ronald Lamola has congratulated the newly elected Pope Leo XIV.
The pope, also known as Robert Prevost, is the first US-born leader of the Catholic Church and also holds citizenship in Peru.
Lamola says that he hopes the pontiff will continue on the legacy placed by the late Pope Francis.
“We congratulate the Roman Catholic Church. We congratulate the pope for this outcome, in a democratic process that produced the pope. And we wish him well and all the best in his task and we hope that he will continue in the progressive inputs of the late pope who had brought the Roman Catholic Church to engage on very ground issues of peace of equality of resolving global challenges on climate change.”
The 69-year-old cardinal is the 267th occupant of the Papacy and new leader for 1.4 billion Catholics around the world.
Pope Leo spent many years in Peru where he served as a missionary and later as a bishop.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has described his election as a profound moment for the Church and the global community.
Administrator at the Cathedral of Christ the King Catholic Church Father Lawrence Ndlovu shares more:
