Cardinal Blase Cupich, Archbishop of Chicago, said he expects Pope Leo XIV "feels an obligation," to speak to what he called the issues of the day, amid "real challenges globally."

"He is an American, but he's an American who has a really international experience," said an assistant professor at St. Louis University.

The pontiff held his first meeting with the news media at the Vatican and called on reporters to choose “the path of communication in favor of peace.”

An invitation has already been extended to Pope Leo XIV to attend this year’s COP30 U.N. climate conference in Brazil.

Erik Pohlmeier, bishop of the Diocese of St. Augustine, is one of many welcoming Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, a 69-year-old Chicago native, as Pope Leo XIV, the new leader of the Roman Catholic Church. Pohlmeier described the appointing of the first American Pope in history as a “great honor,” in a public statement issued by the diocese.