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Chris Quilpa

Habemus papam! We have a new pope, and he’s from the United States of America! Who would ever think that there would be a pope from America, a global power? No one expected that coming. Indeed, an unexpected surprise to more, if not many, Catholics and non-Catholics, especially Americans worldwide. 

On Thursday, May 8, as hundreds of thousands of pilgrims at St. Peter’s Square anxiously waited for the white smoke to finally appear on the chimney at the rooftop of the Saint Peter Basilica. That signaled a new pope had been chosen from among the 133 voting cardinals gathered at the Sistine Chapel, the second day of the conclave’s fourth ballot.)

69-year-old American Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, OSA (Order of Saint Augustine), a native of Chicago, Illinois, is now Pope Leo XIV, the 267th pope and new leader or supreme pontiff of the 1.4 billion Catholics worldwide. 

Like many Americans around the world, my wife and I were quite surprised by the unexpected selection of the first American pope in the 2,000-year history of the Catholic Church. Who would have thought an American Augustinian missionary priest, who’s spent 2/3 of his life overseas working in Peru, Europe, Asia, and Africa, preaching the Good News, would be chosen as the new pope of the universal Church? Indeed, the Holy Spirit guided 2/3 of the 133 voting cardinals to elect him the new pope for all.

We’re so glad and grateful to welcome Pope Leo XIV, Peter’s new successor and the first pope. We hope and pray for his successful stewardship of the Catholic Church, his pastoral ministry of bringing all people together in unity, preaching the Good News, the peace, love and Divine Mercy of Jesus Christ to all.

In his first appearance at St. Peter’s balcony on May 8, the Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, addressed the crowd of about 150,00 gathered at St. Peter’s Square. He greeted everyone with “Peace be with you all!” He thanked his brother cardinals and the late Pope Francis (who passed away April 21, Easter Monday, and was laid to rest April 26 at Santa Maria Maggiore). 

“God loves us without any limits and conditions…God loves everyone. Evil will not prevail. We are all in the hands of God,” he said. “So, without fear, united, hand in hand, with God and among ourselves, we go forward. We are disciples of Christ. Christ goes before us. The world needs his light. Humanity needs it. But as the bridge between God and his love, may we all build bridges with dialogue and encounter, so that we can all be one people, all in peace.”

The following day after his election as the new pope, Pope Leo XIV had his first Mass with the cardinals at the Sistine Chapel. He called all of them to walk with him in this ministry of St. Peter, bringing the Gospel, the Good News, to all people.

In his first Sunday Mass in the Vatican, May 11 (Good Shepherd Sunday and Mother’s Day). he called for unity and peace, an end to the violence in the Middle East, Ukraine, and the latest Indian-Pakistan conflict.

 An American and also Peruvian, Pope Leo XIV is multilingual, fluent in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and French, and able to read Latin and German. 

Born in Chicago in 1955 to Louis Marius Prevost, a U.S. Navy veteran and school administrator of French and Italian descent, and Mildred Martinez, a librarian, of Spanish ancestry, Pope Leo XIV is the youngest of three boys. He graduated from Villanova University in Philadelphia with a degree in mathematics in 1977. He studied at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago,  where he obtained his Master’s in Divinity. From there he was ordained an Augustinian priest in 1982 in Rome. Then, after years of missionary and pastoral work, he returned to Rome to further his studies at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas-Angelicum and obtained a Licentiate in Canon Law in 1984 and later on a Doctor of Canon Law in 1987. He became Cardinal-Bishop of Albano and President of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America. 

 May we pray for our new pope, Pope Leo XIV, that he will lead the Catholic Church with wisdom, courage, strength, peace, hope, humility, faith, and love.