ROME — The new Chicago-raised Pope Leo XIV faces an immediate challenge in his native country: taming the brawling U.S. tribe of Catholics, riven by political divisions that have thwarted the will of his predecessors.

Newly elected Pope Leo XIV is in a new job that will have many crossovers into politics. It's a realm not entirely unknown to the Chicago-born priest.

Leo XIV held his first Mass as pope in the Sistine Chapel on Friday, in what was a private service for the 132 voting cardinals who elected him as the 267th leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics a day earlier.