My Dear Friends,

As you know by now, we have a pope. Cardinal Robert Prevost has been elected and has taken the name of Pope Leo XIV. He will need the courage that comes from the lion in order to carry the burden of the papacy on his shoulders.

Pope Leo was born in the United States and entered the seminary while in high school. He made his vows with the Augustinian order, a mendicant order that hearkens back to the theology and spirituality of the great St. Augustine of Hippo. The Augustinians are one of the four great mendicant orders of the Middle Ages, the other three being the Dominicans, the Franciscans, and the Carmelites.

Pope Leo, besides being from Chicago, spent a good portion of his life in Peru as a priest and then as a bishop. Deacon Dave Reynolds spoke last week in his homily of experiencing the joy and the hope of the crowds that gathered around St. Peter’s waiting to see Pope Leo and to hear his voice.

The election of a new pope, as Deacon Reynolds said, reminds us that the Catholic Church is always on the move. We are a historical church with a historical faith, but we are the Bride of Christ. Just as Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and always, our Catholic Church is also the same yesterday, today, and always.

There is excitement in the air and a reason to hope. We as Catholics will pray that Pope Leo XIV will be a shepherd after the heart of the Good Shepherd. I believe his devotion to the Blessed Mother, especially under the title of Our Lady of Good Counsel, will give him the strength he needs to shepherd our Church.

And even though he took the name Leo because of Pope Leo XIII (the pope of the rosary), we pray that his namesake and the first pope to take the name Leo, Pope St. Leo the Great, will also intercede for him in his new role as the successor of St. Peter.

God bless.

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