Locals in Rome and at home in the diocese react to the May 8 election of Pope Leo XIV

* This story was originally published May 8 and has been updated to add more local comments.

By Tanya Connor 
The Catholic Free Press

People from the Worcester diocese reacted to news of the new pope Thursday. Some were in St. Peter’s Square for the announcement, and some had worked with or met him.

Cardinal Robert F. Prevost, the Chicago-born prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops under Pope Francis, was elected the 267th pope May 8 and took the name Pope Leo XIV.

 
"Join with me in a prayer of thanksgiving to God for the election of Pope Leo XIV as our new Holy Father,” Bishop McManus, who doesn’t know the new pope, said in a statement issued shortly after the announcement was made. “We are truly blessed to welcome him as the Supreme Pontiff and we pledge our support and prayers for his pontificate.”

On Friday, May 9, Bishop McManus celebrated the 12:10 p.m. Mass at St. Paul Cathedral as a Mass of Thanksgiving for Pope Leo XIV.  

“We are also proud that Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, a native of Chicago and a product of the Church in America, is now Holy Father of the Universal Church,” Bishop McManus said in his statement.
 
“It’s nice to have an Augustinian after a Jesuit,” commented Father Richard Lamoureux, who was General Superior of the Augustinians of the Assumption (a different religious community with some connections to the Order of St. Augustine) from 1999-2011 in Rome. Pope Leo XIV was Prior General of the Augustinians for much of that time.
“I think he’ll be good,” said Father Lamoureux, who is now back at Assumption University in Worcester, where he is a trustee and continues to minister on campus. “He’s an American, but he’s South American as well.” (Pope Leo XIV also served in Peru.)  

“He brings together the north and the south,” Father Lamoureux continued. “Prevost understands both.”

He described the new pope as “very friendly, very outgoing, a collaborator – he would reach out to us – soft-spoken, reserved, nice personality.”

Father Carlos F. Ardilla, pastor of St. John Paul II Parish in Southbridge, also met the new pope when he was Prior General. Father Ardilla was in formation/advanced study with the Order of St. Augustine in his native Colombia from 2009-2011 and 2013-2018.
“I have no words to fully express my joy for the election of His Holiness Pope Leo XIV,” Father Ardilla told The Catholic Free Press in an e-mail.

 “I had the opportunity to meet him during my first years of formation on the occasion of his visit to the Augustinian Province of Colombia as the General of the Order, but my joy is not simply because I probably shook his hand (I don’t remember if I did), or because I was one of the many young Augustinian students listening to his warm and formal greetings in perfectly fluent Spanish when he visited our school of theology and friaries.  

“My heart is filled with joy because this is a man whom I have always admired. I feel hopeful when I think of all the great gifts he has to embrace the cross of being the pope: the authentic American heart, the profound and sound theological instinct of someone educated by the Augustinians, the global and synodal understanding of the Church, the government and administrative skills, the missionary spirit and, last but not least, the warm and merciful heart of a Latin American shepherd who loves the Lord and his people.  

“It is exciting for me also because I feel like I profoundly know the roots of his spirituality. Through the Augustinians, I was also formed under the ideals of communion, contemplative action, mission, faith and reason and social justice. I have also lived under the rule of the one who taught us how to be ‘one heart towards God,’ so I know firsthand what a blessing it is for the Church and for the world that a son of St. Augustine is the successor of the Apostle Peter. ... I truly believe that the Lord has done great things for us, and we are glad.”
 
“I’m thrilled,” said Father Dennis Gallagher, an Augustinian of the Assumption and Assumption University’s vice president for mission. “Both the American and Augustinian” parts of the Pope Leo XIV’s background give him a greater sense of connection with the Holy Father.  
   
Msgr. James P. Moroney, pastor of St. Cecilia Parish in Leominster, worked some with Pope Leo XIV.

“I simply met him … in the context of working with Vox Clara,” probably in the early 2000s, said Msgr. Moroney, who was appointed in 2001 an adviser of that committee, which advises the Holy See on English translations of liturgical texts.

“[I’ve] always been impressed with how Pope Leo XIV – first time I’m saying that – I have always been deeply touched by his calm presence and his focus on Christ as the source of our unity,” he said. “Every time we receive a new pope from God it’s the gift that we need. I look forward to learning from the Holy Father.”

Speaking with The Catholic Free Press Thursday, he said St. Cecilia’s was able to change parts of their bulletin before it was printed, it shows all the popes since St. Cecilia became a parish.

Father William E. Champlin, pastor of St. Leo Parish in Leominster, was on site for the announcement.

“I landed in Rome Tuesday morning,” he told The Catholic Free Press Thursday by telephone. “Yesterday I was able to attend the opening Mass of the conclave in St. Peter’s Basilica.” He said he and Paul Ciotti, the friend from Virginia who’d suggested they go to Rome for the papal election, were wearing Red Sox caps, which prompted a reporter from Chicago to ask if they were from Boston and to interview Father Champlin about the Mass for ABC – ironically, it is Chicago where the Pope Leo XIV was born.  

On Thursday they entered the holy doors at St. Peter and St. Mary Major basilicas and visited Pope Francis’ tomb at the latter, Father Champlin said. After an early dinner, they returned to their Airbnb, turned on the television and saw white smoke.

“I moved very quickly to get into St. Peter’s Square,” said Father Champlin, whose tired friend stayed back at the Airbnb to watch on television. “The Square was so crowded I didn’t have a direct view of the balcony. … What was most important was to experience the energy and excitement of the crowd. The excitement was contagious. Everyone was smiling and happy.”  

He said he didn’t quite catch the new pope’s name. People around him were speaking in Italian and Spanish and “right away I heard ‘Americano.’ … I was pleasantly surprised.” Then they started saying, “‘Papa Leone,’ the Italian version of Leo. So I knew our new pope is Leo and he’s American.” When Pope Leo XIV spoke, Father Champlin figured out which cardinal he was.

“This has been one of the most exciting weeks of my life – makes me very proud to be a Catholic and very proud to be a priest,” said the Leominster pastor, who returns home Monday and is talking about sharing his experiences with his parishioners.
 
Christopher Tillotson, a Worcester diocesan seminarian studying in Rome, was also in St. Peter’s Square when the new pope was announced.  

“There was a group of seminarians from the Pontifical North American College,” he told The Catholic Free Press by telephone Thursday. “We were near the front of the Square. We were all extremely excited, from the time we saw the smoke. … It was a mix of great excitement, but also prayer.”

After quite a wait, they heard the name of the new pope announced.

Mr. Tillotson said he was told the new pope had been to PNAC, though he hasn’t met him personally.

“We’re all excited” he said. “I think a lot of guys appreciated his first words. The name – Leo XIV – I think folks are really excited about that,” since Leo XIII is “somebody we’ve studied.”

On an even more personal note, Mr. Tillotson spoke of “the privilege to be, first, in Rome; second, in Rome during a conclave; but third, to be in the Square and see the new Holy Father and receive his blessing – it’s not something you” can fully put into words. “I’m just very, very grateful to God, humbled, even.”
 
“Two thousand years ago Jesus sent forth his disciples, guided by the Holy Spirit, with the great commission to go out to all the world to spread the Good News that we are saved by Christ’s eternal sacrifice and God’s boundless love,” Bishop McManus said in his statement.

“Today, 133 cardinals, who came to Rome from around the globe, guided by the Holy Spirit and strengthened by all our prayers, elected the 267th successor to Saint Peter so that the great commission will continue. We are truly a universal Church which, under the guidance of Pope Leo XIV, will remain steadfast in witnessing to God’s infinite love in a world so desperately in need of hope. 
 
“Let us use the weeks ahead to learn about Pope Leo XIV, listen to him as he speaks to the world, and pray that the Holy Spirit will continue to empower him with the gifts needed to guide the Church as the Vicar of Christ and Bishop of Rome."