Stepping out onto the loggia for his Urbi et Orbi blessing on the evening of May 8 last year, the newly elected Pope Leo XIV extended his arms in that characteristic greeting to proclaim: ‘Peace be with you all’. Some 10 months later Leo finds himself repeating the same words once again.
Leo’s first words as Pope were not a simple platitude. They were those first uttered by the risen Christ, and so the fresh-faced Pontiff made them his own, asking for ‘this greeting of peace to resound in your hearts, in your families, among all people, wherever they may be, in every nation and throughout the world. Peace be with you!’
