On Thursday afternoon, Belan Evans, of Frederick, Maryland, was extremely busy. It was “camp season” at the nonprofit where she works. Still, she made a point to tune into coverage of the papal conclave. 

“I couldn’t resist putting my headphones and just listening and that way being part of this very joyful moment,” she said after hearing the news that the cardinals had elected the first American pope, Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV.

Originally from Ecuador, Evans said that she didn’t know anything about Cardinal Prevost before he emerged on the balcony above St. Peter’s Square, and she was shocked that he was an American. When she learned that Prevost had spent a lot of time in Latin American and speaks Spanish, “the excitement kept growing,” she said.

“And then when I saw him, I was pleasantly surprised,” she told the Register.

“He seems a very humble man. I can tell that he was very emotional, and he looked like he was in disbelief,” she said. “I imagine that that was probably what he was feeling.”

Evans’ reaction captures what a lot of U.S. Catholics experienced Thursday: an initial surprise and unfamiliarity with Prevost’s name, then shock that the new Pope is an American, followed by a keen interest to learn more about him.

 

 

A ‘Very Latin American Heart’

Before being named cardinal and prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, Prevost spent 22 years in Peru, first as a missionary and then as bishop. 

Andres Arango, director of evangelization for the Diocese of Camden, New Jersey, who leads the Secretariat for Evangelization and Hispanic ministries in the diocese, told the Register he was thrilled to hear the news that Prevost was elected.

“I think Pope Leo XIV is a great blessing from God at this moment of the Church and the world. He is not only American, but also he has a very Latin American heart for his many years in Peru. I think he will be able to build bridges of peace in the whole world where everyone is included,” Arango said.

The Pope, he continued, showed himself as a man of deep faith in his address Thursday.

“His first speech was very kerygmatic, centered in Jesus Risen and reminding that God loves everyone without conditions,” he said. 

“It came to my mind that Leo XIII consecrated the world to the Holy Spirit at the beginning of the 20th century. I believe that Leo XIV will bring a new awareness of the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives as missionaries,” he said.

 

 

‘Just Amazing’

Even though he’s seen popes elected before, Robert Brennan, a seasoned Catholic journalist, told the Register that he found the spectacle “amazing.” 

“How did they know to have the Swiss guards all dressed up and the guys in the bands and the military guys? It was just amazing to see all the people, the throngs in the square there,” said Brennan, who has worked in the entertainment industry and writes for Angelus News, the news outlet for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

The fact that Cardinal Prevost wasn’t at the top of anyone’s list of papabile (likely popes) didn’t surprise Brennan.

“Then the anticipation and having to suffer through all the experts telling us who it might be and who it wouldn’t be. I think that’s the way God plans things. It’s just a remarkable process,” he said.

“This is the way God’s always worked through from the Gospels through 2,000 years of the Church,” he continued. The fact that people would think, ‘Oh, this guy’s a front-runner,’ or ‘This guy isn’t.’ They’re always wrong. We are always wrong.

“We always get the Pope that we get. It’s just, to me, a beautiful testament to Christ’s promise about the Church,” he said.

The 68-year-old Brennan wryly observed that Pope Leo XIV is also just the right age. He recalled his father’s reaction when Pope John Paul II was elected.

“My dad said, ‘You know you’re old when you’re older than the Pope,’” he said.  “So the good news is, with Pope Leo XIV, I’m still younger than the Pope, so we’re still good.”

 

A Heart for Social Justice

Sarah Hirsch, of Kansas City, Missouri, told the Register that shortly after learning that Cardinal Prevost had been elected Pope, she quickly went to the internet to read everything she could to find out more about him. She said she was “very pleased” by what she learned.

“I have to say that I was quite surprised, and pleasantly surprised, with the selection of Pope Leo XIV,” she said.

Hirsch runs the St. James Communal Garden in her parish, which, she said is “on the racial dividing line in Kansas City.”

“I was so excited to hear that Pope Leo XIV cares about social justice and that ministry to the poor and migrants is important to him because it is also important to my parish,” she said.

Hirsch said she was also heartened to learn that the new Pope believes in being good stewards of the environment as well as in promoting a synodal Church. 

In her small parish, she said, she and her fellow parishioners recently took steps to “follow the lead of Pope Francis and organize ourselves as a synodal church” rather than replace the outgoing parish administrator.

“When I heard that Pope Leo was involved in that, I was like, ‘Wow, we are on the right path,’” she said.

“I anticipate him continuing down this path, which will then help support us as a parish as we work to reorganize ourselves into a synodal group,” she said.

Father Deacon Robert Klesko, theology adviser at EWTN and a deacon in the Byzantine (Ruthenian) Catholic Church, based in Irondale, Alabama, also expressed appreciation for Pope Leo XIII. 

“I was very excited by the choice of his regnal name, Leo XIV. I have always been a huge fan of Pope Leo XIII, who was the father of modern Catholic social teaching. I hope that the new Pope will carry on the tradition of Catholic social teaching with fidelity and evangelical engagement with the modern world,” Klesko said.

And as an Eastern Catholic deacon, he added that he was “very happy” to hear that the new Pope served in the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches. 

“Bridging the gap between East and West, and especially working for union with our Orthodox brothers and sisters, I hope is a key priority of the new Pope. Each new pope brings Christ’s faithful hopeful joy, and I feel that especially now in this Paschal season. Let’s pray for our new Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV,” he said.

 

‘Peter Lives On!’

Mother Mary Concepta, superior general of the Sisters of Life, shared the sisters’ gratitude to the cardinals for the election of a new pope.

“Today, we rejoice! We give praise to God for the gift of the Holy Spirit, which has guided the Church for the past two millennia since Pentecost!” she wrote in an email to the Register.

“Christ is alive and pours new life into His Church through the cooperation of His faithful ministers in the election of the successor to St. Peter!” she continued. 

“Today we give witness to this enduring miracle:  Peter lives on! We believe that, ‘Ubi Petrus Ibi Ecclesia.’ ‘Where Peter is, there is the Church,’” she observed.

“Today, we have been given a father — a Holy Father — who, with courage, zeal, and humility, will continue to illuminate the way to heaven for his children,” she wrote.

“We are grateful for the cardinals for having yoked themselves to Jesus as they carried the weight of souls in this conclave. During these days, we have joined them in our prayer and fasting, and now we join them and all the faithful in the joy of this new Shepherd!  

“We are grateful for the election of Pope Leo XIV and we as the Sisters of Life promise our prayers for His Holiness,” she said.

Evans, of Maryland, said that she is looking forwarding to getting to know the new pope and the way he chooses to shepherd his flock. She is particularly interested in seeing how his Augustinian spirituality and his Marian devotion will be reflected in his “style.” 

She was also heartened that he prayed for peace during his first public address.

“His prayer was for peace,” she said, “and that is something that we need a lot right now, at a personal level, at a national level, at a world level.”