A Macclesfield priest has welcomed the election of Pope Leo XIV.

Robert Francis Prevost has been chosen as the new head of the Catholic Church.

Father Peter Cryan, parish priest at St Edward the Confessor Catholic Church, believes the Chicago-born Cardinal is the right man for the job.

He said: "I wrote down beforehand some criteria of what the new Pope should bring.

"That he would be approachable to people beyond the Church.

"That he would be multilingual and in particular be fluent in English

"That he would bring a little too divided and fragmented Church closer together.

"That he would have a wide experience of the worldwide Church both in the Churches of the Southern Hemisphere and of the Northern Hemisphere.

"Pope Leo seems to fulfil all these so I am satisfied, indeed pleased.

"And I look forward to, perhaps, a 21st century encyclical letter from Pope Leo similar in its way to his predecessor Leo XIII's ground breaking encyclical 'De Rerum Novaru' in the late 19th Century upholding the dignity and rights of human labour."