What U.S. Catholics are Saying About the Election of Pope Leo XIV: Robert Prevost and the New Orleans Collection
It was the first time in history that Catholics across the U.S. attended a Sunday service with an American pope in attendance.
Robert Prevost, born in Chicago, was selected by the College of Cardinal to lead the church of more than one billion people. He took the name Pope Leo XIV.
Meaghan said that she was excited by the election, and that she was happy because her family once lived in the city.
“It’s amazing that his family comes from New Orleans,” Gibson told Rosemary Westwood. “Hopefully he will grace us with his presence sometime during his papacy.”
The Historic New Orleans Collection states that the Martinez family lived in New Orleans before moving to Chicago in 1910. Their home sat on a plot of land that was later taken to build a highway, the museum and research center discovered.
“So possibly if that had not been built, the family might’ve still been here,” Gibson said. “It’s very amazing to see that happen and know his grandparents got married just down the street from our home church.”
The First American Pontiff: A Mass for the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: A Momentous Moment for the City and the Church
There is a lot of enthusiasm about the election of the first American pontiff according to a woman who was at the church on Sunday.
“I have a little grandson. He just told me in church today, ‘You know what, grandma? I am going to become a priest. I’m going to be a bishop. Spencer said that he’s going to be a pope. “Even he’s catching onto it.”
She was hoping that the work of Pope Francis would continue, such as reaching out to the poor and trying to unify people across the world.
Spencer, who is 74, joked that she has seen a lot of popes. She added: “Pope Francis I loved, and Pope Leo will follow right along in his footsteps and do even greater things.”
At Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago on Sunday, people took selfies in front of a billboard with a message that wished Pope Leo well in his election.
Chicago resident Sara Schroeder said it was a historic moment for the country and for the city. “Mass was gorgeous,” she said. The priest was very pleased with the pope. The people cheered that he’s from Chicago, and everyone applauded whenever he was mentioned.
On Thursday, the evening mass at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington, D.C., turned into a thanksgiving for the new pope, WAMU’s Jackson Sinnenberg reported.
“As he begins his pontificate,” said Father Isaac Sagastume, “may the universal church receive its new pastor with joy and a renewed sense of missionary zeal.”
The legacy of Francis, the pope, the migrant, and the cross-partisan divide: what is the fate of pope Leo?
Francis said he was on a “secret mission” to stop the war between Russia and Ukraine, got down on his hands and knees to kiss the feet of the warring leaders of South Sudan’s government and its opposition and, in his final Easter speech before he died, made explicit appeals for peace in Ukraine and Gaza, which Leo echoed again on Sunday.
The pope is just one voice in the world, and he has limited power to make change. At a time when there were natural allies such as former President Barack Obama in the United States and Chancellor of Germany, Francis became pope. When Francis died, the world shifted to a right leaning order, with President Donald Trump in the United States, Hungary’s Orban and Italy’s Meloni.
The Pope missed the Zeitgeist of migrant issues being more complicated and there are trade-offs, said a historian at Oxford who studies the Catholic Church. If the new pope, he added, “carries on and just keeps saying what Francis did, he will become more and more marginal.”
On some issues in the culture war, activists on either side may seek to claim the new pope as their own. Liberals will embrace his advocacy. Conservatives will urge Leo to stick to current Catholic doctrine on issues like gay marriage.