cardinals

“I think that gave him some appeal for a lot of the cardinals,” Martin said.

It has been a busy week for the pontiff, who held his first Mass as Pope in the Sistine chapel on Friday before speaking to cardinals on Saturday.

Cardinal Vincent Nichols, leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, was one of 133 cardinals who were shut into the Vatican's Sistine Chapel and later elected Pope Leo XIV on Thursday.

Pope Leo, 69, wore a white papal robe trimmed in gold as he addressed the seated cardinals in the Sistine Chapel, an event broadcast live by the Vatican administration.

He repudiated the luxurious trappings favored by some cardinals, and his hands-on devotion to the poor broke with many long-standing traditions, and added a populist flair to others.