As Pope Leo XIV begins his ministry, what are some people’s hopes for his papacy?
At 6 p.m. on Thursday, May 8, Father Greg Friedman, OFM, began to make his way into St. Peter’s Square. He and a fellow American moved slowly through the crowd that had gathered, awaiting the results of the conclave. Five minutes after joining his friends by the obelisk in the square, white smoke began to pour out of the chimney atop the Sistine Chapel.
“I could not believe events conspired to land me in St. Peter’s Square at the moment of the white smoke,” recalls Father Greg.
For the next hour, he stood among an estimated 100,000 faithful, anticipating the announcement of the next pope. Who would it be? That was the question on everyone’s mind. The previous days had been filled with speculation about Pope Francis’ successor. News outlets around the world culled lists of cardinals they thought were front-runners.
Father Greg recalls that the long hour passed with eyes trained on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica. Suddenly, a movement of the curtains signaled Habemus Papam! (We have a pope!).
At first, Father Greg says he couldn’t identify the name when it was announced. “Then I heard ‘Prevost,’ the American-born cardinal, part of the Roman Curia, former missionary in Peru—and an Augustinian friar—a religious like Pope Francis. I was surprised! And yet in a heartbeat, the choice felt right,” Father Greg recalls. “[The pope’s] opening address confirmed my feeling. As a fellow friar said, the new pope ‘hit all the right notes.’ I felt the same.”
A Papal First
Many people were surprised that a cardinal from the United States—the first ever—was chosen.
He is a native son of Chicago, Illinois, an unlikely place to find a pope, and served there for many years. He also spent years of his ministry in Peru. In fact, along with his US citizenship, he is also a citizen of Peru. While in Peru, in addition to serving the people of the region, the future pope served as a formation director for the Augustinians. He also was the prior provincial for the Province of Our Mother of Good Counsel, located in Chicago.
His work with his Augustinian community is yet another aspect of the new pope’s ministry that spoke to Father Greg as a Franciscan. “In religious life, there is a sense that a good major superior is a listener, someone who has extensive experience of caring for brothers or sisters. I like that in this pope,” he says.
In 2019, then-Bishop Prevost moved to Rome after being appointed to the Vatican’s Congregation for the Clergy. Six years later, Pope Francis named him a cardinal.
An Unlikely Choice
Brother Lawrence Hayes, OFM, provincial minister of the Our Lady of Guadalupe Province, was surprised that someone from the United States was elected, “especially at this historical moment—after several non-Italian popes and with a College of Cardinals marked by much greater international representation, thanks to Pope Francis.” Even so, the newly elected pope’s nationality is not something he finds important.
“When I think of the role of the pope, I think rather of a pastor who guides a worldwide flock with care for all peoples and all nations and with a vision that, of necessity, far transcends that of any one country,” says Brother Lawrence.
Father Greg also didn’t think a US pope would be elected. But he did think that Cardinal Prevost would make a good successor to Pope Francis. He says the cardinal “was an ‘insider,’ but [also] a missionary, someone committed to the synodal process, a moderate progressive, and a religious. But an unlikely choice as an American,” he says. “The pope’s wish to be ‘a missionary Church, a Church that builds bridges and encourages dialogue’ and a ‘synodal Church,’ confirmed the positive emotions flooding me as I listened,” he recalls of Pope Leo XIV’s first speech after his election.
Given the pope’s work outside the United States, Sister Margaret Carney, a member of the Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities and former president of St. Bonaventure University, says she hopes that “Catholics in the United States can come to a better understanding of what it means to be a global Church. We need to hear—really hear—and learn from the needs and hopes of other cultures and nations when it comes to changes in discipline and doctrine.”
Darleen Pryds, PhD, an associate professor at the Franciscan School of Theology at the University of San Diego, says she would like to ask the new pope “how his capacity for presence and listening was deepened by living in Peru. No doubt he has been influenced by the people he served in Peru. I would benefit from hearing him talk about what he learned from the people there and how his experiences with them changed him.”
What’s in a Name?
As soon as Cardinal Prevost’s papal name was announced—Leo XIV—people immediately began speculating as to why this pope would choose that name. Some insight came when the pope met with the College of Cardinals after his election. He told them he chose the name Leo “mainly because Pope Leo XIII, in his historic encyclical Rerum Novarum, addressed the social question in the context of the first great industrial revolution.
“In our own day,” the pope continued, “the Church offers to everyone the treasury of her social teaching in response to another industrial revolution and to developments in the field of artificial intelligence that pose new challenges for the defense of human dignity, justice, and labor.”
The pope’s choice of Leo XIV for his papal name is insightful, says Father Greg. “Following the 19th-century Leo XIII—a secular Franciscan, by the way—who pioneered the Church’s contemporary teaching on social justice, we get a sense of this Leo’s ‘program.’”
Moving the Church Forward
Following his election, speculation quickly began as to what Leo XIV’s papacy would look like. Will he follow the path of Pope Francis, or will he set off and forge his own? That is yet to be seen. But many people have hopes for what is possible.
Pryds says she hopes Pope Leo will help us all “to live in a mutually respectful way with an understanding and appreciation that we are interdependent, with one another and with all of creation. I think all the other issues on my mind ultimately flow from that. Without mutual respect and awareness of our interdependence, we easily lose our way.” Brother Lawrence hopes that the new pope “will continue on the path forged by Pope Francis.” He was heartened, he says, by Pope Leo’s address to the College of Cardinals, when he told them that “he wants the Church to renew together our complete commitment to the Second Vatican Council.
“He further endorsed several fundamental priorities championed by Pope Francis: the primacy of Christ in the evangelizing mission of the Church; the essentially missionary nature of the Church; the importance of collegiality and synodality in Church governance; respectful attention to the ‘sense of the faithful,’ including its manifestation in various forms of popular piety; loving care for the least and the rejected; and courageous and prophetic dialogue with the contemporary world.”
As for Sister Margaret, she believes “we need to learn a lot more about doing effective dialogue with those others if we want to see substantial changes in areas like sexual ethics, the role of women, etc.”
Messages for the New Pope
When asked what he would tell the new pontiff if they sat down together for a talk, Brother Lawrence said he would ask him to “stay close to the poor as you did in Chiclayo, Peru. Please radiate joy, hope, and openness to all: todos, todos, todos! Please continue to pursue the synodal path that Francis has opened for the Church. Please do not be afraid of allowing the tradition of the Church to develop in ways that are faithful to the heart of Christ and responsive to the advances in human rights and modern science.”
Pryds says she would “ask him how he cultivated his capacity to listen deeply and to be present with others,” especially in a world with so many interruptions and interrupters. “I am relieved when I experience someone who can listen without interrupting me and others,” she says.
“I would very much like to hear how he has cultivated this ability to be grounded and present without the tendency to be reactive or defensive,” says Pryds. “I sense that so many of us, especially those who hold leadership roles in the Church or in our communities, would do well to learn from Pope Leo’s behavior and help model this way of listening deeply to the concerns and experiences of others without imposing judgments, which only lead to reactivity and defensiveness.”
Yet to Come
As for Father Greg, he is still unpacking his experience from the election. “When the new pope began to speak, my shaking cell phone steadied and captured his words: ‘God loves us. God loves you all, and evil will not prevail. We are all in the hands of God. Without fear, united, hand in hand with God and among ourselves, we will go forward. . . . I am an Augustinian, a son of St. Augustine, who once said, ‘With you I am a Christian, and for you I am a bishop.’”
That day, people lingered in St. Peter’s Square long after Pope Leo XIV departed, says Father Greg, “not wishing to abandon a shared moment of joy, faith, and history, an unforgettable experience, an unexpected gift.” In that spirit, he says, “Let’s pray for [Pope Leo XIV] and for all of us affected by his election—whether believers or not.”
