By Kimberley Heatherington, OSV News
(OSV News) — It’s one of those moments — certainly for Catholics, and often for those who are not — when people remember where they were, and what they were doing at the announcement of a new pope.
As white smoke finally poured from the intensely watched temporary chimney secured atop the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel — while the bells of St. Peter’s Basilica rang out in Rome — a sort of pious pandemonium broke out.
And not just in the Eternal City. American Catholics from coast to coast were thrilled to learn the next pope was one of their very own: Pope Leo XIV, formerly Cardinal Robert F. Prevost, an American from Chicago.
“More happy than I can be,” Veronica Canadas told OSV News while sitting in her white cab outside Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago. She was waiting for a passenger to leave church where congregants heard the joyous news.
Canadas, a 30-year Chicago resident originally from Ecuador, said she was “even more happy” to know Pope Leo XIV is a Chicago native and a Spanish-speaker who spent significant time in Peru, saying he knows Latin American culture.
“I’m so excited because, you know, it’s not only the Catholic Church that loves our pope. It’s the whole world that loves our pope now,” Eileen Quinn Knight told OSV News.
A Holy Name parishioner and retired education professor at St. Xavier University south of Chicago, Knight said she was struck by how the students were drawn to Catholicism.
“The growing need in our young people for our church is wonderful,” she said. “And I think it’s going to be a new church with this pope — in a different way, a wonderful way.”
Outside Philadelphia, students at Villanova University, Pope Leo XIV’s alma mater, freaked out when they learned that the new pope was an alumnus.
“We actually didn’t know that he was an alum, we heard them mention on the newscast that Pope Leo XIV is an alum,” Noel Villepigue, a freshman from Weston, Connecticut.
“We all just went absolutely nuts,” he said.
At Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, teachers paused final exams, shouts rang out across Benedictine College campus — “Habemus Papam! Habemus Papam” — as people spread the good news to each other.
In the campus coffee shop Holy Grounds, students slammed their notebooks shut, and switched from writing papers to watching the live feed of the Vatican as they eagerly awaited the new pope to emerge.
Students like Sarah Meersman, a senior from Cumming, Georgia, said hearing the news of white smoke — while taking a test — was a moment she will never forget.
“I will never forget sitting with all of my senior girls, watching our new pope, our new father being announced,” Meersman told OSV News.
Upon hearing that the College of Cardinals had selected Cardinal Prevost, an Augustinian from Chicago, jaws dropped, as students, like senior Finnigan Ritchie celebrated the election of the first American pope.
“He’s from a place I know,” Ritchie said. “It just gives me a sense of familiarity with the pope that I’m not used to.”
Young people across the world rejoiced with the announcement of a new pope, excited to once again have a spiritual father.
“We are the next generation of moms, the next generation of dads, the next generation of priests and religious life, and how fitting that we have a new pope during the year of hope,” Meersman said.
“A lot of young people are craving leadership right now,” she said, “and I’m really excited to see what this new pope is going to do for us in our generation.”
But the election of an American pope was welcomed as an important spiritual validation for Catholics in the U.S.
“My lifetime has been spent imagining that there had never been an American pope because the College of Cardinals regarded its American members as somehow deficient in holiness,” said Sharon Clark Chang, a parishioner at St. Leo the Great Catholic Church in Fairfax, Virginia. “I’m proud of the College of Cardinals for at last overcoming issues that have borne no relation to the excellence of the man for the office.”
Chang told OSV News she was “proud of Pope Leo XIV on so many levels — among them, his balance, his thoughtful acknowledgment of church history and tradition, and his sacrificial connection” to the developing world.
She said, “Very glad to have lived to see the first American pope!”
In Phoenix, yellow and white banners and streamers — reminiscent of the Vatican flag — adorned the courtyard outside St. Mary’s Basilica, where faithful gathered for noon Mass in thanksgiving for Pope Leo’s election.
Secular Franciscan Carmen Duron told OSV News she believes Pope Leo will continue the path set by Pope Francis.
“He’s a missionary, and that is very special because Pope Francis was,” Duron said. “Pope Leo has served the poor, and that’s what we want, someone that is very much attuned to the marginalized.”
Nayeli Garcia, who works for the Diocese of Phoenix Office of Worship and Liturgy, told OSV News she recognized the “providential” connection between the new pontiff and the last pope to assume that name, Pope Leo XIII.
“I love that it (his election) happened to be on the Feast of the Apparition of St. Michael, and Pope Leo (XIII) is the one who actually wrote the St. Michael Prayer,” Garcia said. “I think it’s very providential, and we just are excited for what’s to come for the church.”
Through his involvement with the Missionaries of Mary apostolate, Armando Ruiz told OSV News he had a chance to meet the new pope when the latter was still serving as bishop of Chiclayo, Peru.
“He’s American and Latino, so he’s got a heart for the people but he’s direct and takes care of business,” Ruiz said, acknowledging the Holy Father’s U.S.-Peruvian dual citizenship. “It’s this incredible moment that he’ll bring calmness, decisiveness and that missionary love.”
Simone Orendain, Kimberley Heatherington, Jack Figge and Tony Guttierez contributed to this report.
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