The ascension of the first pope from the United State was a welcome surprise Thursday to many Louisiana Catholics.
“Having this go to someone born in the United States has been an amazing, unexpected outcome to this conclave,” said the Rev. Michael Duca, bishop of the Diocese of Baton Rouge.
It is notable for a country that is not even 250 years old, and for an office that has been dominated by Europeans for centuries.
On social media, the Rev. Michael Alello, of St. Aloysius Catholic Church in Baton Rouge, had a similar reaction: “They said there will never be an American pope … Holy Spirit, hold my beer.”
Cardinal Robert Prevost’s selection as pope on just the second day of the conclave in Vatican City also had local Catholics rushing to the internet to learn more about this familiar, but also not well-known figure in this country. That is because Prevost, who has taken the title Leo XIV, has spent the bulk of his career out of the country, ministering in Peru.
Bishop Duca has some commonalities with the new pope. Both were ordained in 1978 and both are canon lawyers who graduated from the Pontifical College of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome. But while has met all the other cardinals from the United States, he never met Cardinal Prevost.
“He is the least American of any of the American cardinals,” Duca said.
Prevost’s background in South America, of course, connects him closely to Pope Francis, who was from Argentina. Francis served as Pope for 12 years before dying April 21.
Pope Francis elevated Cardinal Prevost to positions of special prominence.
Duca said Prevost will likely carry on much of Francis’ accepting message that God loves everyone, particularly the downtrodden and the poor, but the bishop predicts the new pope will make the office his own.
“Will he be another Francis? No,” Duca said. “He will be this pope.”
In the cafeteria at St. George Catholic School in Baton Rouge, the schoolchildren were watching a TV live feed trained on an uneventful Vatican Square when the sign everyone was waiting on happened.
"When the white smoke came out, the kids just jumped up and down. They were screaming,” recalled the Rev. Paul Yi, pastor of St. George Catholic Church.
It was a similar scene at Christ The King Church on the LSU campus. The Rev. Mathew Dunn, the church's pastor, said he was walking down a hallway, getting ready to hear confessions when he heard a scream. Soon he was gathered in the church's activity center with about 100 people, most of the LSU students, watching a livestream, all waiting to learn the identify of the next Pope.
For many of the students, it their first time following the selection of the next leader of the Catholic Church. Dunn said that as soon as the name was announced, the audience got very excited and immediately turned to their smartphones to learn more.
"I don't think anyone expected an American of all people to be chosen, which is exciting for all of us," Dunn said. "I didn’t even know his name before it was announced I'm ashamed to say."
St. George Catholic Church is a mixed congregation. Every Saturday night, the mass is held in Spanish. As was true with Pope Francis, Pastor Yi said he expects Spanish-speaking Catholics in Baton Rouge will see a special connection to the new Pope.
“It’s a very diverse group of Hispanics in this diocese,” Yi said. “I am sure he will speak to them, heart to heart, in some way.”
Duca noted that the last Pope Leo — Leo XIII, who led the Catholic Church from 1878 to 1903 — was an important figure in Church history.
"The most recent Leo wrote some of the most major teaching documents of the Church," he said. "That is telling as well.”
Li agreed with the bishop. He noted the the last Pope Leo led the church through a time of great industrial change that presented challenges to human dignity.
"We of course deal with technological advances like artificial intelligence where human dignity will have to have balanced," Yi said.
While he could speak several languages, Pope Francis acknowledged struggling with English. New Pope Leo should have no such struggles since he is a native speaker.
Duca said he hopes Pope Leo's command of English and familiarity with U.S. politics will help him communicate the message of the church to Catholics in Louisiana and the rest of the country more adeptly than Pope Francis did.
“I am looking for precision of theology without losing that merciful loving message of the Gospel that will build unity and will build more enthusiasm in the church and will prove more convincing for people to follow and come to him,” Duca said.
