Students at Willows Academy in Des Plaines pulled out all the stops to cheer for Pope Francis on March 19, the day of his inaugural Mass.

The girls, in grades six through 12, decorated the school’s foyer with yellow and white paper chains and streamers and made posters welcoming the new pontiff, and gathered for an afternoon “pep rally” to cheer for him.

The girls recited a decade of the rosary and mounted cheers of “Viva il Papa!” before enjoying freezer pops — with faculty gently suggesting that even those who gave up sweets for Lent could partake because of the festive nature of the event. A video screen above showed images of the papal Mass and the procession leading up to it.

Perhaps the most excited were members of a school choir who were to spend Holy Week in Rome, singing for services in the church of Sant’Appollinaire.

The choir, who had tickets for a papal audience before Pope Benedict XVI announced his resignation, now will be in an audience with Pope Francis, and there’s a possibility they will have a chance to sing for him.

“We have a possibility of 45 seconds,” said senior Elizabeth Habisohn.

They’ve chosen a song —one written for the choir by a local composer — and now are trying to come up with best 45-second passage they can.

Once they learned of Benedict’s resignation, the girls “had kind of hoped” the new pope would be elected while they were in Rome so they could run through the streets, shouting “Habemus papam!”

Since that didn’t happen, they had to be satisfied with shouting it through the school corridors.

Indeed, the excitement over the new pope overwhelmed the school when he was elected on March 13.

Laurel Johnson, who teaches theology for eighth, ninth and tenth grades, said she had a website showing the Sistine Chapel chimney on in her room from the time the conclave started.

“We had the ‘smoke cam’ on in my room,” she said. “I was out of the room for lunch, but some girls saw the white smoke and started screaming, and soon the whole school almost was packed into my room.”

Soon all the classrooms had the video from St. Peter’s Square on their screens, and eventually, since classes weren’t really studying anyway, most of the school moved into the auditorium.

“Things just shut down. They were crying,” Johnson said. “One girl said this was the most religious experience she had ever had. … It was very special.”

Sophomore Katie Lechner said, “When we got out of class, it was really fun.”

Classmate Meg Conroy said, “We got to witness it live. We got to see history.”

The sophomores remember when Blessed Pope John Paul II died and Pope Benedict XVI was elected, but most did not pay such close attention. Also, they recalled, the world was mourning John Paul, the only pope they had ever known.

Sophomore Hannah Labotka said the word that comes to mind when she thinks of Pope Francis is “humility.”

“He paid his own bill at the hotel,” she said.

Jessie Calderisi said that taking the name “Francis” indicated that the new pope would make the poor a priority.

“St. Francis was just such an incredible example,” she said.

Eighth-grader Bridget Hirsch said the election of a new pope and the events surrounding it “were exciting for our whole class.”

“This is our third pope!” she said. “Everyone is really on the edge of their seats to see what the new pope will do. He just seems like a really nice guy. That’s a weird thing to say about a pope.”