Pope Leo XIV

Our newly elected Holy Father has been introduced to the world, and his historic election marks the first time an American ascended to the Chair of St. Peter. Our monks have made note of the ways his election touched their hearts and relates to their own lives of work and prayer.

This article was originally published in our June 2025 Kansas Monks newsletter. Read the whole newsletter at www.kansasmonks.org/newsletter/june2025

Official portrait of Pope Leo XIV.

May 8th, 2025 marked a momentous day for St. Benedict’s Abbey as well as for the entire Catholic Church. The election of Pope Leo XIV on the fourth scrutiny, or round of voting, in the conclave was a historic event for American Catholics, as it marked the first time a citizen of this country was elected as Vicar of Christ by his brother cardinals. Much has been written elsewhere about the circumstances that led to his election, how conclaves are conducted, his personal and pastoral history as a priest and bishop, and more. We do not wish to expand on subjects that have been more carefully reported by others, but we did want to take some time to share some of our own reflections and experiences from the papal election.

For the monks, the joy of a new pope was in some ways tinged with sadness, as our fellow monk Fr. Duane Roy also passed into eternal memory in the early morning only an hour after midnight. Fr. Jeremy Heppler and our novice Br. Fulton Neumann were with him in his final moments, but Fr. Jeremy noted that those moments were full of peace and that, as they sat praying by his bedside, it was comforting to note the look of quiet reflection on Fr. Duane’s face during his final breaths in this life.

Fr. Jeremy later considered how much of our new pope’s ministry had been spent in Latin America, just as Fr. Duane had spent much of his monastic life at our daughter priory in Brazil, working and praying among simple workers living out their Catholic faith with great fervor despite their humble surroundings. Fr. Duane, he pointed out, would have been deeply proud to see a fellow American missionary religious elected to the papacy. And in those small signs God gives us that move beyond mere ‘coincidence’ as tokens of His grace, May 8th is also the anniversary of the birth of Venerable Fulton Sheen, the patron of Br. Fulton who was praying with Fr. Duane at the end.

Although the monastic community was somber at the loss of a beloved brother, and though the funeral arrangements still needed to be made, there was nevertheless great excitement when the plumes of white smoke came billowing out of the Sistine Chapel. Fr. Daniel McCarthy, our fellow monk of St. Benedict’s Abbey who teaches Latin in Rome, had told those of us back in Atchison that he wouldn’t be in the piazza looking for smoke—instead, he’d be listening for the bells to peal.

“How do you hold class while students are watching for the smoke on their phones, or plan a lesson when the students are ready to sprint two miles to the Vatican to hear the announcement of the new pope?” reflected Fr. Daniel afterwards. “I was fortunate in that most of my classes ended before the first smoke would appear each day.”

As a Latin professor, he recalled when a colleague of his, Fr. Reginald Foster, had been approached some years ago by the Vatican Secretariat of State about planning for an eventual conclave. There was a question about the Latin phrasing of the announcement of a future pope’s name. Does one use the possessive form (“the name of X”) or the accusative (“the name X”)? If you were brushed up on your Latin and listening carefully, you’d have heard the accusative form, “qui sibi nomen imposuit Leonem XIV”—“who takes to himself the name ‘Leo the Fourteenth’.”

Reggie, as Fr. Daniel calls his late friend, had had the final word on the matter. There was no need for the “of.”

Fr. Daniel met the bishop we now call “Leo” when Cardinal Robert Prevost had visited Sant’Anselmo a year earlier. “The odd thing is that only the really astute among us remembers him,” says Fr. Daniel. “He was so reticent, so humble that few remember his visit.” He’s quite certain everyone will remember the bishop next time he pays a visit, as the Holy Father traditionally does on Ash Wednesday.

Here in Kansas, things progressed a little differently.

Fr. Jeremy was at Maur Hill – Mount Academy for the students’ end-of-year ice cream party when a student asked, “Wouldn’t it be cool if we got the white smoke right now?” In just a few moments, it appeared. Fr. Jeremy wrote about the experience for the school’s records as well:

“Fortunately, the cafeteria was ready to provide the students with an early lunch, while we were waiting for the announcement of the new pope. As soon as the students finished eating, the entire school gathered in the Abbot Barnabas Senecal Auditorium so that we could watch the announcement. The anticipation was palpable. As the minutes rolled by, the nervous excitement only increased. Shortly before the Cardinal announced the name of the new pope, bells—including the football victory bell—rang out. Applause, amazement, and joy were prevalent when we realized that the new pope is from the US. It only grew as Pope Leo XIV made his appearance. The Spanish-speaking students were very excited to hear him speak in their language.

“After Pope Leo gave his blessing, we prayed an Our Father, a Hail Mary, and a Glory Be for him and his intentions, before concluding with singing ‘Holy God, We Praise Thy Name’ and announcing that the next day’s morning Mass would be a Mass for our new pope.”

Fr. Meinrad Miller, associate pastor at St. Benedict’s Parish in Atchison, was in the parish office when the new pope was introduced. “We were all excited to hear the news,” he shares. “It was a reminder how the Holy Spirit still guides the Church as He did on Pentecost.”

At the Abbey, some of the lay staff congregated around a computer to wait for the Pope’s name and identity to be revealed after the white smoke was seen. Br. Placidus Lee and Fr. Jay Kythe noticed the commotion and huddled with them behind a desk, hoping to catch a glimpse before midday prayer and the noontime Mass. Both were to be disappointed, as they had to depart for the church before the announcement from the Loggia came—but not before Fr. Jay suggested that, as the celebrant for the Mass, he wouldn’t be opposed to the discreet delivery of a sticky note at Mass. Our events coordinator, Garrick Lambert, was able to deliver the following brief message around the time of the homily: “Leo XIV. Cardinal Robert Prevost. American-born.”

Fr. Jay was able to name the new pope during the Eucharistic Prayer.

“You know,” he has since pointed out, “I might have been the first priest in the whole world to pronounce the words ‘and Leo our Pope’ at Mass.”

Br. Placidus later returned to the staff office and asked, “Did anyone have ‘first American Pope’ on their bingo card this morning?” As the Abbey’s archivist, he was quick to point out that the monastic community has ties, of sorts, to the new Holy Father not just through our shared national identity, but through a unique historical connection to the Augustinian order to which Pope Leo belongs.

In 1931, twenty-four young Augustinian Recollects who were refugees from the Spanish Civil War came to the Abbey, where the monks hosted them in their need. Half of them left for England a year later, where they had procured a monastery. The last of them eventually took up residence in St. Augustine’s Monastery in Kansas City, Kansas, when it opened in 1935. (St. Augustine’s Monastery has since changed hands and no longer houses the Recollects.)

While there is no direct connection to Pope Leo XIV, it illustrates the way in which his life and ministry have been reflected in the lives and ministries of priests and religious in this country for decades—even centuries. It is of interest to note that the monastic community of St. Benedict’s Abbey was first established in the era of Bleeding Kansas, when Americans were on the brink of civil war over the injustices of slavery—and our new pope himself is the first man elected to the papacy who is descended from the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

Pope Leo’s maternal grandparents were of mixed-race Louisianan and Haitian Creole heritage, identified as “Black” in an early census in the South before marking their race as “White” in a later census in Chicago. While some of the Holy Father’s ancestors arrived on the western shores of the Atlantic in slave ships, his ascent to the Bark of St. Peter could only have been possible after the great social upheaval of the American Civil War that began on Kansas soil. The emancipation of slaves in the U.S.A. eventually culminated in the abolition of slavery throughout the New World, particularly following the 1888 encyclical In Plurimis, which condemned the Brazilian slave trade. That encyclical was authored by Pope Leo XIII, whose visionary social teachings inspired the choice of the new Pope’s name.

Fr. Matthew had some thoughts on the Pope’s choice of name. “His namesake was a great teacher and administrator,” he notes, and he thinks the new Pope will follow in the earlier Leo’s footsteps well. “Pope Leo XIV brings good credentials with him: a canon lawyer, leader of the Augustinians, bishop in Peru, prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, and a natural leader.” Fr. Matthew believes Pope Leo’s familiarity with South America, where he holds dual citizenship as a Peruvian, will serve him well, as it is the region of the world with the highest proportion of Catholics. “We wish him God’s grace as he faces the challenges of the second quarter of the twenty-first century.”

The halls of St. Benedict’s Abbey have certainly been abuzz with chatter in the time since the conclave ended, and much excitement, hope, and prayer has been expressed in those conversations. Perhaps it is Br. Jean-Marie Hogan who puts the thoughts of the monks most succinctly:

“We pray for our Holy Father, that as he bears witness to the Gospel throughout the whole world, Peter may continue to speak through Leo in shepherding the universal Church.”