The announcement from St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City set off waves of shock and pride across the United States: For the first time ever, the pope was an American. And a White Sox fan to boot.
In more than two dozen interviews across the country, Catholics and non-Catholics alike said they were stunned by the news that a 2,000-year-old religious institution had chosen Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, originally from the South Side of Chicago, as its new leader, Pope Leo XIV.
“We got what we never expected,” said the Rev. Lawrence C. Tajah, a chaplain for the Nigerian Catholic community in Hyattsville, Md. “The public speculations never really focused on America but rather Asia, Africa and probably Rome or Italy. But this is a very big surprise for us, and a very good one too, perhaps because it came from a place we never anticipated.”
Some hoped that a pontiff known to friends simply as “Bob” would add a plain-spoken American sensibility to the Vatican’s ornate traditions. Others offered prayers that an American pope might help to heal the divisions within American Catholicism, and perhaps even smooth the rifts between the United States and its allies that have widened under President Trump.
“It’s part of a new American narrative,” said Alex Freeman, a 33-year-old event planner from Atlanta. Ms. Freeman was raised Baptist but attends Catholic services occasionally at a historically Black Catholic church.
The announcement stirred a rare moment of bipartisan comity for a politically divided country. President Trump hailed Pope Leo’s election as a “Great Honor for our Country,” while former President Joseph R. Biden Jr., a lifelong Catholic, said, “May God bless Pope Leo XIV of Illinois.”
It was one of the few events that seemed to unite a siloed, splintered country in utter astonishment. Students at the Jesuit-run Xavier University in Cincinnati “went wild” when they heard the news, said Eric Sundrup, Xavier’s vice president for mission and ministry.
In Oakland, Calif., Spanish-speaking parishioners were excited to have another pope who spoke Spanish, and who had spent much of his life ministering in Peru. In Boston, a group of golf buddies who had been betting on the outcome of the conclave (the spiritual implications of this are unclear) said none of them had guessed correctly.
“I never thought it would happen,” said Tom Keane, 71, one of the golfers. “Not in my lifetime.”
And in Washington, D.C., officials at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, known as America’s Catholic Church, were so “totally surprised” by Cardinal Prevost’s election that they had to overhaul their decorating plans, said Jacquelyn Hayes, a spokeswoman.
In addition to the white-and-gold papal bunting that the basilica planned to unfurl, its officials hung an American flag from the Knights Tower.
Less than half a mile away, students at the Catholic University of America took a break from move-out day to contemplate what changes Pope Leo might bring to the church. Matt Castles, 21, a nursing student from Westbury, N.Y., said his family’s group chat was buzzing with excitement when the news hit.
“I hope it makes more Americans turn to the Catholic Church because I feel like there’s a stigma and a lot of instances of the church being frowned upon,” he said. “It kind of feels like it’s going to be a big step for us to ensure that the church continues to go in the right direction.”
Liberals and left-leaning Catholics expressed hopes that Pope Leo XIV would continue Pope Francis’ commitment to the poor, migrants and victims of war, while also making the Catholic Church a more welcoming place for gay couples.
As Maura Keller, 30, a lifelong Catholic in the Chicago area, listened to Pope Leo’s inaugural address to thousands of faithful gathered outside the Vatican, she was struck by his statement that God loves all people without any limits or conditions.
“If the Catholic Church continues to move in that direction, saying God loves all of us, the marginalized, the poor, the unhoused, those in the L.G.B.T.Q. community, that’s a Catholic Church I would like to see continuing,” she said.
But others said that the new pope did not appear to be a “Francis II.” In a 2012 speech, he criticized practices he called “at odds with the gospel,” referring to the “homosexual lifestyle” and “alternative families comprised of same-sex partners and their adopted children.”
Parishioners and clerics across the country said they had already begun including Pope Leo in their prayers and services. In Maryland, Monsignor Andrew Baker, rector of the seminary at Mount St. Mary’s University, just south of the Pennsylvania state line and Gettysburg, included the new pope’s name when he celebrated Mass on Thursday.
“I felt great joy,” he said.
Chicagoans, in particular, rejoiced at the news that the first American pope hailed from their city.
The Rev. William Lego, pastor of St. Turibius Parish in Chicago, knew the new pope when they were young seminarians in Michigan. “I think my classmate just got it,” he said, sounding stunned, from his office. “They picked a good man.”
The Democratic political strategist David Axelrod, who once helped get another long-shot Chicago candidate elected to high office, sounded equally shocked. “Holy smokes!!” he wrote on social media. “An American pope! From Chicago!!”
But outside the pope’s hometown, other Americans said they had never heard of the pope until his name was announced in Latin from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica. For many, the first reaction was: “Who?”
“I didn’t even know there was a cardinal from the U.S. in the running,” said Danielle Charles, a 33-year-old insurance professional in San Antonio.
In a divided country where partisans seize every chance to score political points, Republican and Democratic activists alike quickly tried to parse what appeared to be Pope Leo XIV’s social media account and other statements to glean where he might stand on the political spectrum.
Some liberals on social media delightedly circulated a February post from an X account under the name of Robert Prevost that linked to a National Catholic Reporter opinion essay criticizing Vice President JD Vance for citing Scripture in placing family, neighbors and community above citizens and the rest of the world. The article’s headline read: “JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for others.”
Conservatives, for their part, quickly pulled the pope’s voting records from Illinois that appeared to show he voted in Republican primary elections in 2012, 2014 and 2016. Records show his party affiliation is listed as undeclared.
Father Robert A. Dowd, the president of the University of Notre Dame, nevertheless said he hoped that Leo’s election could prove “a uniting moment” for an American church that has been sharply divided.
“It’s clear to me that he’s going to do what he can to help people to find common ground,” Father Dowd said. “The differences, I think, are enriching, but we can also be deeply divided, and what we want to make sure is that our differences don’t become divisions.”
In New York City, Rosario Gonzales, a 72-year-old retired accountant and Filipino immigrant, said she did not have a preference for an American pope, adding that his selection was “who the Lord preferred.”
“It doesn’t matter what nationality the pope is,” she said. “He’s still my pope.”
Despite closely watching the news, she said she didn’t know much about the new pope and had heard his name for the first time only today. Still, her first impression was positive. “He looks the part,” she said with a laugh. “He’s popeish.”
Reporting was contributed by Julie Bosman from Chicago, Alessandro Marazzi Sassoon and Alan Blinder from Atlanta; Kevin Williams from Cincinnati; Sarah Mervosh, Liam Stack and Leo Dominguez from New York; Coral Murphy Marcos from Oakland, Calif.; and Lindsay Shachnow from Boston. Susan C. Beachy contributed research.
