Pope Leo XIV Celebrates Debut Mass as Italian Media Trumpet First American Pontiff and Ponder Paolo Sorrentino’s ‘Young Pope’ Prophecy

Pope Leo XIV celebrated his first mass on Friday in the Sistine Chapel with the cardinals who elected him, as Italian media trumpeted the historic significance of Chicago-born missionary Robert Prevost becoming the first North American pontiff.

“The American Pope: Peace” was the headline in daily Corriere Della Sera, while La Repubblica simply went with “The American Pope.” Both newspapers dedicated roughly half their pages to papal coverage and noted that when the 69-year-old Prevost emerged on St. Peter’s balcony on Thursday, he wore a traditional burgundy stole with gold embroidery draped over his shoulders. This is in contrast to Francis, his predecessor, who opted for all-white vestments upon his election in 2013.

Corriere della Sera, in a front-page editorial titled “The Mild Pope,” stated that Leo XIV is “decidedly less pop” than Francis, in form. But it noted he could instead become so “in substance” going forward.

Italian media also underlined that Pope Leo XIV, who is younger than his past two predecessors when they became pontiffs, loves to play tennis, swim in Lake Michigan, and – at least by one account – has a taste for fried chicken.

Italian newspapers are also calling Italian director Paolo Sorrentino prophetic.

In his 2016 Sky/HBO TV series “The Young Pope,” Sorrentino imagined the election of the first American pontiff, 47-year-old Lenny Belardo, played by Jude Law, a conservative who took the name Pius XIII and smoked, played pool and drank Cherry Coke Zero for breakfast.

La Repubblica quoted the Oscar-winning director as pointing out during a 2016 Venice press conference that the Pope depicted in his show was diametrically different from Francis. The paper also quotes him as saying that “this does not mean that a Pontiff like this cannot happen in the near future.”

“It is illusory to think that the Church has taken a path towards progressivism,” La Repubblica quoted Sorrentino as saying at the time. “Indeed, it is likely that after this pope another one will come one of the opposite sign.”

“Regarding this prophecy we still suspend judgment to see what Pope Leo XIV will really be like,” La Repubblica said.

Prevost, who has spent most of his career as a missionary in Peru and became a cardinal in 2023, is generally considered a progressive who is expected to give continuity to Francis’ vision of greater reform within the Vatican. Francis brought him to Rome in 2023 to head a Vatican office in charge of choosing which priests should serve as Catholic bishops.

Since arriving in Rome, Prevost presided over one of Francis’ most groundbreaking reforms when he added three women to the voting committee that decides which, obviously male, bishop nominations should be forwarded to the pope.

However, according to The New York Times, Prevost has expressed less welcoming views on LGBTQ+ people than Francis. In a 2012 address to bishops, he lamented that Western news media and popular culture fostered “sympathy for beliefs and practices that are at odds with the gospel,” the Times said. As examples, Prevost at the time cited the “homosexual lifestyle” and “alternative families comprised of same-sex partners and their adopted children.”