(LifeSiteNews) – Cardinal Gerhard Müller issued a short message last week welcoming Pope Leo XIV as the new pontiff and urging him to heal the divisions present in the Catholic Church.

In a May 9 message to Pope Leo XIV published by InfoVaticana, Müller called on the newly elected pontiff to follow in the footsteps of Popes Leo I and Leo XIII, and bring unity to a sharply divided Church as well as peace to the world. The cardinal, who has been described as “traditionalist,” was a frequent critic of Pope Francis and said prior to the conclave that electing a heterodox pope would be “catastrophic” for the Church.

Müller first emphasized his belief that God, using the College of Cardinals, selected Pope Leo XIV as the new pontiff and asked the Holy Spirit to strengthen him.

“We believe in the Holy Spirit, who guides the Church of Christ. And we ask that same Spirit of God to strengthen the new Pope, Leo XIV, so that he unites the Church in the confession of ‘Christ, the Son of the living God,’ (Mt 16:16)” the cardinal wrote.

Müller then highlighted how the pontiff’s predecessors, with his papal namesake, Popes Leo I and XIII, fostered unity among Christians through notable encyclicals and letters amid rising divisions in the Church during their respective pontificates.

BREAKING: Cardinal Mueller’s fiery sermon TODAY at St. Agnes, Rome: “Cardinals must not elect a pope who chases personal agendas or mimics his predecessor. The Pope is the foundation of Church unity in divine truth. Pray the Holy Spirit reveals the next Peter!” 🙏 #Conclave… pic.twitter.com/fnGkolnK3x

— John-Henry Westen (@JhWesten) May 4, 2025

“(Pope Leo XIV’s) predecessor in the name, Leo I, the Great, wrote a famous letter to the Council of Chalcedon (451), in which he underlined the inseparable unity and the unconfused distinction of divine and human nature in the person of the Son of God. This is the basis and foundation of the Catholic faith,” he wrote. “Pope Leo XIII laid with his encyclical Rerum Novarum (1891) the foundations of the Social Doctrine of the Church, which, where it has been taken as a guide, has formed the foundation of a just and free modern society.”

READ: Cardinal Müller: We need a ‘successor of Peter’ not of one man’s ‘private ideas’

Müller then turned to division in the Church during the reign of Pope Leo X, during which Martin Luther, who, like Pope Leo XIV, had been an Augustinian priest, led the Protestant revolt. The prelate expressed his hope that, unlike Leo X, the new pontiff would be able to overcome the division that overwhelms the modern world.

“We hope that the new Pope, who bears the same name and is also an Augustinian monk like Luther, 500 years later, will collaborate — in the wake of the good and holy popes for 250 years — in overcoming the divisions in Christendom and tensions in the world,” he said. “So that all Christians are united in Christ, the Son of the living God, and that, with the help of the moral authority of the papacy, the peace of God dwells in the hearts of men and hatred and war are overcome in the world.”

Before last week’s papal conclave, Müller had emphasized that it would be “catastrophic” for the Church to elect a “heretic pope.”

READ: Cardinal Müller says it would be ‘catastrophic’ for conclave to elect ‘heretic pope’

Since the election of Pope Leo XIV last Thursday, many Catholics have been wondering what type of pope he would be and if he would break from Francis’ revolutionary pontificate.

Traditionalist prelates Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke and Cardinal Robert Sarah have issued positive messages about the new pope.

READ: ‘Great joy’: Cardinals Burke, Sarah welcome Pope Leo XIV

LifeSiteNews has also published a series of reports detailing the positive signs from the new Pope as well as potential problems.

Furthermore, the Pope called for an end to global wars during his first Sunday Regina Caeli address. He also sang the prayer in Latin.

LifeSiteNews readers are invited to continue praying for our new pope.