ROME (AP) — Songs like “Born in the U.S.A.” and “American Pie” played loudly as six cardinal electors from the United States gathered in Rome on Friday to discuss the historic election of the inaugural U.S.-born pope, Cardinal Robert Prevost.
“I took a look at Bob … and he had his head in his hands and I was praying for him, because I couldn’t imagine what happens to a human being when you’re facing something like that,” shared Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark, New Jersey, recalling the moment just after casting his vote in the Sistine Chapel. “And then when he accepted, it was like it was made for him.”
The day after the Chicago-native Prevost ascended as Pope Leo XIV, the cardinals convened on a stage adorned with the Stars and Stripes and a Vatican flag at the Pontifical North American College. This hilltop institution for U.S. seminarians is just a short walk from St. Peter’s Basilica, where Leo delivered his first speech to the world on Thursday evening as the new head of the Catholic Church’s global community of 1.4 billion believers.
The cardinals highlighted how his American nationality wasn’t a deciding factor, especially in the most geographically diverse conclave in history, though many rejoiced in it.
“The fact that he was born in the United States of America, boy, that’s a sense of pride and gratitude for us,” Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York said.
But Dolan and others added that Leo’s experience as an Augustinian as well as ministry in Peru — where he also acquired citizenship — and leading the Vatican’s Dicastery for Bishops made him a “citizen of the world.”
“In a very real sense, Cardinal Prevost in his life has been at his core a missionary, in every way,” Cardinal Robert McElroy of Washington said.
They also said that Leo could build bridges to all world leaders, including U.S. President Donald Trump. U.S. Catholic bishops have had a fraught relationship with Trump, especially over the crackdown on immigration, and Pope Francis had sparred with Trump since he first was a presidential candidate.
But cardinals in the conclave were most concerned with “who among us can bring us together, who among us can strengthen the faith and bring the faith to places where it has grown weak,” Cardinal Wilton Gregory said.
Earlier, the first U.S. Black prelate to assume the rank of cardinal had joked that he and Leo had chatted “from one south sider of Chicago to another.”
The United States had 10 voting cardinals in the conclave, the second-highest number of any country after Italy. Four of them currently serve as archbishops in the U.S. — Blase Cupich of Chicago as well as Dolan, McElroy and Tobin. Joining them were archbishops emeritus Gregory and Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston in Texas, as well as French Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the apostolic nuncio to the United States.
They urged the faithful to see the conclave not as a political campaign, but as a grave choice driven by the Holy Spirit for a global spiritual leader.
“This wasn’t our first rodeo,” said Dolan, referring to the church’s election of more than 260 popes in its 2,000-year history.
He said that the “ecstasy” in the crowd gathered in St. Peter’s Square on Thursday night exploded when the much-expected “ Habemus Papam ” — Latin for “we have a pope” — rang out from the loggia, even before the new pope’s identity was revealed.
“There will be a man at the window on Sunday … papa is back,” Dolan added, referencing the blessing that popes have long bestowed on the crowds on Sundays, and which Leo — “il papa” in Italian — is scheduled to deliver on May 11. “It’s the office of the successor of St. Peter that endures.”
Several of the men referred to the man — who they’ve known for years as Bob or Robert — by his papal name, Leo. On Friday, they joked with each other and the journalists — including Dolan and Tobin saying that the conclave might have have been short, because the first night’s meal wasn’t conducive to sticking around.
But they highlighted that ultimately what delivered a majority in less than 24 hours stemmed from discernment and the grace of God.
“We were able to treat each other with great respect, to listen to each other during the congregations beforehand, and then when it came time for voting, things seemed to just jell and go in a direction that set us on a path of unity,” Cupich said. “If only the rest of us, in our lives and in the world, could have that mad dash to unity that we seemed to have in conclave.”
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Colleen Barry contributed to this report from Soave.
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