Overview

• He has restored permission for the traditional Latin Mass inside the Vatican, with a Pontifical Mass scheduled on 25 October to be celebrated by Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke.
• His early public messages stress appeals for a just peace in Gaza and Ukraine, and an offer to host talks at the Vatican has not led to negotiations.
• He has revived traditional papal trappings by planning to live in the Apostolic Palace, vacationing in Castel Gandolfo, wearing more ornate vestments, and using larger electric cars.
• He was elected with a mandate to ease internal tensions between conservatives and progressives, and his approach so far has been restrained and conciliatory.
• Major teaching is still pending, so positions on disputed questions such as women’s ordination and clerical celibacy remain unspecified.