Together with the Universal Church, and with all people of good will, the Catholic Diocese of Lancaster in the UK welcomes and commends to the grace of Almighty God Cardinal Robert Prevost OSA as Pope Leo XIV, the successor of St Peter.

Pope Leo comes to this universal ministry after many years of professed and ordained life as deacon priest and as a bishop, as a religious, and as a teacher.

As with his predecessors we hold the Holy Father in our prayers and take courage already from the words of his inaugural address with its call for peace across humanity.

The times we live in cry out for a fundamentally different approach to serve the world order, one led by Christ. I ask you to do all you can in your parishes and homes to ensure that our loyalty to the Holy Father is Gospel led, not media led.

May we also rejoice in learning that, as Father General of the Order of Saint Augustine, Father Prevost was present in our Cathedral of Saint Peter for the Episcopal Ordination of my predecessor, Bishop Michael Campbell OSA on 31st March 2008.

Mary the Mother of God. Pray for him. St Peter. Pray for him. St John Paul II. Pray for him, Pope Saint Leo the Great, pray for him

You can read a biography of Pope Leo XIV here

BBC News has a report of Father Prevost’s, as he was,
visit to Lancaster for the installation of
Bishop Michael Campbell OSA