‘A very big surprise’: World reacts to selection of Chicago-born Pope Leo XIV

On the steps of Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago, a group of excited sixth graders dressed in Catholic school uniforms began jumping up and down. “Long live the pope!” they chanted. “Long live the pope!”

In Chiclayo, Peru, the Rev. Pedro Vásquez, 82, was also overjoyed. “My heart is going to fail me!” he exclaimed, shocked that the city’s former bishop was the new pope. “I’m going to faint! Oh my God! Oh my God!”

And there was bewilderment, at least momentarily, that the cardinals had chosen a leader from the last place where many assumed they would look: the United States.

Fabio Vagnarelli, 42, an actor from Rome who had expected an Asian pope to be elected, said that when the new pope first appeared on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, “in the crowd, you could feel a moment of, Who?”

The elevation of Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost as the first pope from the United States touched off an avalanche of surprise and emotion among Catholics around the world.

Many said they were astonished that the 2,000-year-old religious institution had chosen an American priest as its new leader. Prevost, 69, who was born in Chicago, took the name Pope Leo XIV.

“We got what we never expected,” said the Rev. Lawrence Tajah, a chaplain for the Nigerian community in Hyattsville, Maryland. “The public speculations never really focused on America, but rather Asia, Africa, and probably Rome or Italy. But this is a very big surprise for us, and a very good one, too, perhaps because it came from a place we never anticipated.”

The announcement even prompted a rare moment of bipartisan pride for a politically divided country. President Donald Trump hailed it as a “Great Honor for our Country.” Former President Joe Biden, a lifelong Catholic, offered his congratulations to the new pope and prayed, “May God bless Pope Leo XIV of Illinois.”

In Washington, officials at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception were “totally surprised” by Prevost’s election, said Jacquelyn Hayes, a spokesperson.

Instead of unfurling white-and-gold papal bunting as planned, they hung an American flag from the church’s 329-foot Knights Tower.

Millions of people, Catholics and non-Catholics alike, were able to watch the pope’s ascension on television or on their smartphones, first with puffs of white smoke, and then with his appearance and announcement of his papal name, and his first words, “Peace be with you.” Many said they liked what they heard in his address to the crowd in St. Peter’s Square, and were approaching his papacy with an open mind and their own hopes.

Some hoped that the new pope, who until recently went by Bob, could add a plain-spoken American sensibility to the Vatican’s ornate ways. Others hoped that an American pope might heal ideological divisions within U.S. Catholicism, and perhaps even smooth the rifts between the United States and its allies that have widened under Trump.

“With the social and political situation with Trump, I think it’s a good thing,” said Francesco Saverio Tiberi, 18, a student from Rome who was in St. Peter’s Square. “Maybe an American pope can do something to help relations between Italy, Europe and America.”

Two beaming Americans, Sean Sikora from Oklahoma and Cole Wendling from Texas, clutched an American flag as strangers congratulated them in St. Peter’s Square. “You won today,” a tall man draped in a Canadian flag shouted out, to a roar of good-hearted laughter from the crowd.

Leo’s elevation to the papacy comes as the Roman Catholic Church in the United States had grown increasingly divided over Pope Francis’ papacy. While many progressive Catholics viewed Francis as a hero, many conservatives resented what they perceived as his blurring of clear boundaries.

Liberals and left-leaning Catholics expressed hope that the new pope would continue Francis’ commitment to the poor, migrants and victims of war, while also making the Catholic Church a more welcoming place for gay couples.

Maura Keller, 30, a lifelong Catholic in the Chicago area, listened to Pope Leo’s first address to thousands of faithful gathered in Vatican City, and was struck by his statement that God loves all people without any limits or conditions.

“If the Catholic Church continues to move in that direction, saying God loves all of us, the marginalized, the poor, the unhoused, those in the LGBTQ community, that’s a Catholic Church I would like to see continuing,” she said.

The Rev. Robert A. Dowd, president of the University of Notre Dame, said he hoped that Leo’s election would be “a uniting moment” for the U.S. church.

“He’s an American with a global perspective, but he’s an American, and he understands, I think, the state of the church here in the United States,” Dowd said in an interview.

Chicagoans, in particular, rejoiced at the news that the pope was one of their own.

“Not only is he an American, but he is from Chicago,” said Veronica Cervantes, 52, an executive recruiter. “That right there is shocking.”

The new pope’s family had attended Mass at the St. Mary of the Assumption Parish on the South Side of Chicago, which has since been shuttered. His father, Louis Prevost, was a school superintendent in Chicago Heights. His mother, Mildred Prevost, was a librarian and deeply involved in parish life, according to her death notice in 1990.

Marianne Angarola, who attended Catholic grade school with the future pope on Chicago’s South Side, said he was smart, kind and well behaved, and not much of an athlete. It was clear even then that he was destined for the priesthood, she said.

In Chiclayo, the impoverished coastal city in Peru where Leo served as bishop from 2015 to 2023, many also celebrated the new pope as one of their own.

“Many people here are very moved,” said Elmer Uchofen, a priest in Chiclayo. “We are very excited. All the people have jumped, they have rejoiced in this church.”

In his first address as pope, from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, Leo spoke in Italian and Spanish and mentioned his “dear diocese of Chiclayo, in Peru.” He did not speak in English or mention his American roots. Echoing Francis, he said he wanted a church that always sought to be “close to those who suffered.”

The new pope first moved to Peru in 1985 as a missionary working in rural regions of the country at a time when it was plagued by violence by the Shining Path, a Maoist guerrilla movement.

He returned to the United States in 1998 but headed back to Peru in 2014 to serve in Chiclayo and was appointed bishop by Francis. Leo is also a naturalized citizen of Peru.

Those who knew him in Peru described him as kind, patient and devoted to the poor. He was heavily involved in an area that suffered from frequent flooding and often delivered food and other supplies to remote areas himself, carrying bags of rice on his back, Uchofen said.

Vásquez said he believed that Leo would carry on Francis’ legacy of bringing the church closer to the people. He recalled in particular the new pope’s creation of a program to help Venezuelan migrants in Chiclayo.

“We had to welcome the foreigner” was the lesson that he emphasized, Vásquez said.

Other Catholics said they were just beginning to learn about the new pope, but were excited by what they had heard.

“To tell you the truth I expected the pope would be Black this time, because it seems like it is time for that, but it is nice that they named an American,” said Alice Rebecchi, 18, an Italian who was with her family, visiting St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York. “That he is from America still feels like something new and modern, so I hope it goes well.”

As her family dove back into the crowd outside the cathedral, her father, Andrea Rebecchi, 56, summed up the mood. “Enjoy the new American pope!” he said.

In Queens, New York, Rosario Gonzales, 72, a retired accountant and Filipino immigrant, said she hoped the new pope would continue Francis’ outreach to non-Catholics and show his same compassion for children and migrants.

And although she said she didn’t know much about the new pope and had not heard of him before Thursday, her first impression was positive. “He looks the part,” she said with a laugh. “He’s pope-ish.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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