Who is our new pope, Pope Leo XIV?

When Pope Leo XIV walked out on the balcony, I knew nothing about him.

“He’s an American,” people around me were saying, reading about him on their phones. “He’s spent many years in Peru.”

As he stood there waving to the people of Rome—and people around the world—I was trying to get a sense of our new pope. He had a genuine smile. He looked honored and excited and maybe overwhelmed. The moment when he got a little choked up standing there was so human, so powerful.

Then he spoke, and all I heard were words of love, words of hope, words that said to me that we are on this journey together. We are not alone.

“God loves us, all of us, evil will not prevail,” he said. “We are all in the hands of God. Without fear, united, hand in hand with God and among ourselves, we will go forward. We are disciples of Christ, Christ goes before us, and the world needs his light. Humanity needs him like a bridge to reach God and his love.”

Pope Leo needs our prayers, just as we as a Church need his. What a daunting, enormous task. What a gift this pope could be—and is—to our Church. What a blessing to have a pope who has so much to bring to this time.

Since that time on the balcony, I’ve read and watched so much, taking in everything I can find to know this man. He seems to be a holy man who loves God and who loves his faith—our faith. I pray he is exactly what our Church needs right now, and what our world needs.

As Pope Leo was announced, my phone was blowing up with texts and emails. I was hearing from colleagues, of course, but also from friends and family everywhere, people who are Catholic, people who are not Catholic, people who were seeking to connect and knew I would be taking in this very moment.

I was. And I still am.

In many ways, I don’t feel equipped to bring anything to this conversation that isn’t already being said. I am devouring all the interviews with people who know him and can’t wait to help us know him, but my favorite are the interviews with his two older brothers.

Siblings know you in ways no one else does. They are full of hilarious and wonderful anecdotes. Pope Leo’s brothers have told us how he used to pretend to be a priest, how a neighbor proclaimed he would be the pope when he was five, and how he plays Wordle now. (Pope Leo, the world would love to know your starter word—and your longest winning streak.)

What strikes me about those interviews is the sibling relationship, which I love so much. One of the first facts I went hunting for in the hours after the announcement was the pope’s birth order in his family. Our birth order shapes who we are and how we interact with others.

I was surprised to discover that Pope Leo is a youngest child—and a third child like me, though I am a third of six. Somehow, for whatever reason, I was thinking he would be an oldest child. Oldest children seem to be given leadership roles so often. But Pope Leo is a third child.

This is not unusual for popes in recent history, so maybe the Holy Spirit has different thoughts on birth order. Based on my quick research, of the eight most recent popes, four have been third children—Leo, Benedict XVI, Saint John Paul II, and Pius XII. Pope Francis was the oldest of five. Three of those four have been youngest children. Do with that what you will.

Regardless of his role in his family of origin, I can’t wait to get to know more about Pope Leo through his own words and actions now. I am still astonished that he is an American—something we always thought was impossible.

Somehow it makes it seem easier to connect with him as a person and a leader. What will that mean for our Church? What will that mean for his leadership? I am on the edge of my seat. But I am very much along for the ride. I can’t wait to get to know Pope Leo better, and Catholics and non-Catholics around the world clearly feel the same way.

People talk about the pope receiving the grace of the office, being changed in good ways by the role they have been given. What a beautiful idea to know that an individual brings so much to this new undertaking but that the Holy Spirit also fills in the cracks.

May Pope Leo be strengthened for the journey ahead. May he find strength he may never have known. And during this Jubilee Year of Hope, a gift from our beloved Pope Francis, may he bring hope to a world that needs it so badly.

“We are all in the hands of God,” as our Holy Father said. God bless Pope Leo XIV!

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