Archdiocese celebrates election of Pope Leo XIV

Pope Leo XIV will never forget his Chicago roots, but he is “first and foremost” a child of God who will work to lead the worldwide church and to draw attention to those on the margins of society, who otherwise might be forgotten.

That was the prediction of Auxiliary Bishop Larry Sullivan, vicar general of the Archdiocese of Chicago, who spoke to reporters at Holy Name Cathedral May 8, shortly after the announcement that Chicago-born Cardinal Robert Prevost, an Augustinian, had been elected the 267th pope.

“The most important thing is that a successor of St. Peter has been elected, so no matter who that person was, it was going to be a source of great joy and a source of great happiness for us,” Bishop Sullivan said. “While there’s a sense that we’re proud that he’s from Chicago, we’re proud that this is the first pope from the United States of America … Pope Leo XIV is first and foremost a child of God, and that means he is here to serve all of God’s people. We also know that Pope Leo XIV served more many years in Peru, and he has a real hands-on knowledge of what it means to serve the poor and to help those who are in need.”

Bishop Sullivan also celebrated a May 9 Mass at Holy Name Cathedral in thanksgiving for the new pope, because, he said, “the church is in need of a shepherd.”

“Having a a shepherd matters,” he said. “Having someone to guide us as a universal church matters, far more importantly than celebrating a hometown hero and far more importantly than celebrating that we have the first pope from the United States.

Bishop Sullivan said he had never met Pope Leo, but that they have many mutual friends and colleagues, who uniformly describe the new pope as a kind, compassionate man of deep faith.

Pope Leo XIV attended Villanova University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics, before joining the Augustinians and starting his theological education at Catholic Theological Union, where he received a master’s in divinity in 1982.

He went on to earn a doctorate in canon law at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, known as the Angelicum.

In a statement, CTU said the Master of Divinity degree the future pope earned “integrates rigorous theological and pastoral studies, preparing students to serve in dynamic and diverse contexts and ministries throughout the world.”

In 1985, Pope Leo XIV was sent to Augustinian mission in Chulacanas, Peru. He ministered in Peru until 1999, when he returned to serve as provincial prior of the Augustinians’ Chicago-based Mother of Good Counsel Province.

Two years later, he went to Rome as prior general of the Augustinians, a post he held for two six-year terms. He returned to his home province in Chicago in 2013, but was named bishop of the Peruvian Diocese of Chiclayo a year later. He served there for a decade, before Pope Francis called him to Rome as prefect for the Dicastery of Bishops in 2023, and made him a cardinal the same year.

Then-Cardinal Prevost held Peruvian as well as American citizenshop.

CTU’s president, Dominican Sister Barbara Reid, traveled to Rome when he became a cardinal.

Bishop Sullivan said the election of the Chicago-born American was a surprise, but that no one knows how the Holy Spirit will act when a conclave begins.

Father Gregory Sakowicz, rector of Holy Name Cathedral, was celebrating the noon Mass at the cathedral when the Pope Leo XIV was announced. He said he learned who the new pope was from a woman to whom he was giving Communion.

“I was in absolute shock. Happily shocked,” Sakowicz said. “Two things struck me. He has been the lead of the dicastery of making bishops worldwide. He was very well known by the cardinals in conclave. Number two, the fact that he was born in Chicago, American-raised, he spent time in Rome and also in Latin America means that he had great diversity in background and he will be heavily into social justice and speaking as voice for the poor. That was my immediate thought.”

“I would believe that anyone who was elected would strengthen the church in America, would strengthen the church in Chicago, that is the role of the shepherd,” Bishop Sullivan said. “Whoever it was going to be was going to make us stronger. I would say he brings a wide variety of perspectives. He brings what it means to have been born in Chicago, to have been educated here in the United States, what it means to serve in Peru. As the head of the Congregation for Bishops, he was very, very familiar with the worldwide church. He brings in many, many areas of expertise and many, many experiences. Of course, being born and raised in Chicago is among the experiences he brings, and that’s a special connection.”

Bishop Sullivan said the election of Pope Leo XIV and the excitement it has generated, even around thing like which baseball team the new pope followed, offers an opportunity for Catholics to share their faith.

“We have the whole world focusing on us,” the bishop said. “That gives us the opportunity to share with people who we are as the body of Christ, who we are as a Christian people. We should engage them in ocnversation, and we should remind them that they are loved as God’s children.”

While Pope Leo has spent more of his adult life in Peru and Rome than Chicago, he still has local connections. One of his brothers, John Prevost, served as principal of St. Gabriel School on the South Side from 1993 to 2004 and again in 2015, according to the school.

South Sider Keely Reardon, a 2022 graduate of Villanova University, said she was downtown accompanying her grandmother to a doctor appointment when they heard that a pope had been elected. Her mother joined them for lunch, and the learned that the new pope was from Chicago.

“We are super, super excited about that,” Reardon said.

While she never met the new pope herself, she said she had heard from friends who attended St. Rita High School.

“They said he used to substitute in their physics class,” said Reardon, who was sitting on the steps of Holy Name Cathedral taking in the scene.

She hopes Pope Leo XIV will follow in Francis’ footsteps of welcoming all people into the church.

“I think there’s been so many people leaving the church for reasons of exclusion,” she said. “I hope he follows in Pope Francis’ footsteps of being inclusive.

Michael Clark, a doctoral student in biomedical engineering at Northwestern University’s Chicago campus, also came to the cathedral.

He hopes the new pope will emphasize outreach to people who are poor and ignored or forgotten.

“I had an encounter with someone – someone unhoused, I assume,” Clark said. “He wanted money, of course, but what he really wanted was to be heard. I couldn’t really help him, but when I stopped, the first thing he wanted to say was, ‘Thank you for listening to me.’ That stuck with me.”

He would like Pope Leo XIV to work to make sure that people who are often overlooked are heard, he said.

Bishop Sullivan said May 9 that he is sure the new pope will do that, because that is what all Christians are called to do.

“He’s going to be an advocate for the poor,” Bishop Sullivan said. “He’s going to be an advocate for the voiceless. He’s going to point out injustice in the world. Why? Because that is what God wants from each and every one of us.”

Dan and Beth Duffy of Toronto were waiting outside the cathedral to light a candle. They were in Chicago visiting their adult children, alumni of Notre Dame in Indiana.

Dan Duffy was thrilled to have an Augustinian priest, because, he said, his children attended an Augustinian school.

“It’s a great tradition,” he said.  

At his Mass May 9, Bishop Sullivan called on the congregation to pray for the church’s new shepherd.

“He is in need of our prayers,” Bishop Sullivan, adding that while he has no way of knowing what was in Pope Leo XIV’s mind as stepped out onto the loggia in St. Peter’s Square, he can imagine from what he saw.

“It looked like it was a very humbling experience for him,” Bishop Sullivan said. “It was an overwhelming sense of awe that was coming upon hum, and the overwhelming weight of his office was weighing down on his shoulders.”