On Thursday, May 8, 2025, Catholics around the world celebrated and rejoiced when the bells at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome rang out, signifying the election of a new pope.
The cardinals chose Robert Francis Prevost, an American from Chicago who holds a dual citizenship in Peru, as the next pope; he chose the name Leo XIV.
The first words that the 69-year-old pontiff spoke on the balcony of St. Peter’s were “peace be with you.” He went on to say, “God loves us, God loves you all, and evil will not prevail! All of us are in God’s hands.”
Evil will not prevail. We must trust in this, just as we trust that God heard our prayers and that the Holy Spirit guided the cardinals in their decision.
I find it fitting that our new pope chose the name Leo XIV, as Pope Leo XIII wrote the Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel, whom we implore to defend us in battle against the “wickedness and snares of the devil.” We know there are no coincidences with God, as we also find that May 8 is the Feast of the Apparition of St. Michael—a feast that “commemorates an apparition of Saint Michael the Archangel on Monte Gargano in southern Italy in the year 492” and that was “instituted to thank God for a military victory” that came about because of the intercession of St. Michael.
We also know that every day we fight an immense spiritual battle. Our culture wages war on the preborn, the sick, the elderly, the poor, marriage, and the vulnerable. So I believe that Pope Leo’s election on this date—the day St. Michael protected the people of southern Italy—holds incredible significance for battling today’s culture of death.
In a press release after his election, American Life League president Judie Brown, who served three terms on the Pontifical Academy for Life, said she sees the cardinal’s “American roots as giving the new pope a unique opportunity to lead the United States back to a higher moral ground, especially in the matter of abortion, which Catholic doctrine teaches is an abhorrent mortal sin.”
Judie continued, “During my years on the Pontifical Academy for Life, I witnessed both St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict strive to create a culture that loved and adored life, just as our Lord does. . . . My hope and prayers are that Pope Leo XIV will follow in their footsteps and embrace the Church with that same humble love for all humanity.”
We pray that Pope Leo XIV becomes the father our wayward culture needs.
Who Is Pope Leo XIV?
As we enter a new pontificate, the tendency of many is to do a deep dive into the pope’s past and to learn about what he has said and done. When we do that with Pope Leo, we will find that he majored in math at Villanova, was ordained in 1982, earned his doctorate in canon law at the Pontifical College of St. Thomas Aquinas, and among many other positions, served as a missionary in Peru. He is an Augustinian (of the Order of St. Augustine) and from all accounts is incredibly intelligent and well spoken.
We will also find that, according to Reuters, “in a 2023 interview with the Vatican’s news outlet, Prevost focused on the importance of evangelization to help the Church grow.”
This evangelization is, after all, what Christ intended when He gave Peter the keys to His kingdom and made him the first pope of the Church He began. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches, “The Pope, Bishop of Rome and Peter’s successor, ‘is the perpetual and visible source and foundation of the unity both of the bishops and of the whole company of the faithful.’”
So, yes, while we could examine everything Pope Leo XIV has ever said, what is more important now is that we pray, trust in the Holy Spirit, and reserve judgment until his actions speak.
Let us now focus on evangelization and on the peace Pope Leo wishes for us, knowing that there is no peace if there is murder in a mother’s womb. There is no peace when we ignore the sick, the disabled, and the poor. There is no peace if families are at war. And there is no peace if we refuse to trust in the Holy Spirit.
Today, we must come together as a united Church family, for as Pope Leo said looking out over St. Peter’s Square, “We must try to be a missionary Church, a Church that builds bridges and always dialogues, that is always open to receiving everyone like this square with its arms open to everyone, everyone in need.”
Only when we do so will we help lead others to Christ. That is our most important work here on earth.
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