Cardinal Robert Prevost may be the first person from the U.S. to become the head of the Catholic Church but his surprising election by the world's cardinals as Pope Leo XIV probably had less to do with his birthplace than his former workplace.

The new Pope, Leo XIV, has called for the Catholic Church to "desperately" counter a lack of faith in his first mass at the Vatican. Speaking on Friday, the day after he was elected the first US leader of the Catholic Church, he warned that people were turning to "technology, money, success, power, or pleasure" for security instead of the Church.