I made my way to the Vatican, taking two buses and walking the last mile. The joyous crowds were enormous and filled with enthusiasm! The new Holy Father addressed the crowd in Italian and Spanish. He extended the peace of the Risen Christ to everyone, and he reminded us that God loves us all. He led the crowd in reciting the Hail Mary since it was the Feast of Our Lady of Pompeii. At the end, he extended his apostolic blessing on the crowd. He seemed extremely moved by the experience.
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By the Most Rev. Joseph Roesch, MIC
Superior General of the Congregation of Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception of the B.V.M.
May 8, 2025 will long be remembered as the day when Pope Leo XIV, the first Holy Father born in the United States of America, had been chosen. I was working in my office in Rome, which is about three miles from the Vatican, when I heard the surprising news that white smoke had gone up from the chimney at the Sistine Chapel. The Polish Sisters who work in our house were in St. Peter’s Square when it happened.
I made my way to the Vatican, taking two buses and walking the last mile. The joyous crowds were enormous and filled with enthusiasm! The new Holy Father addressed the crowd in Italian and Spanish. He extended the peace of the Risen Christ to everyone, and he reminded us that God loves us all. He led the crowd in reciting the Hail Mary since it was the Feast of Our Lady of Pompeii. At the end, he extended his apostolic blessing on the crowd. He seemed extremely moved by the experience.
The new Holy Father began his life as Robert Prevost, a native of Chicago. He attended Villanova University in Philadelphia and became an Augustinian priest. I encountered him at a meeting of the Superiors General in Rome when he was the Superior General of the Augustinians and I was the Vicar General of the Marians. He spoke excellent Italian and I was surprised to later learn that he was an American. He had been a missionary in Peru as a well as a Bishop there, so his Spanish is also excellent. I attended the Consistory in 2023 when he became a Cardinal.
Augustinian House
The Augustinian House is right next to St. Peter’s Basilica. As a Cardinal, living in an apartment at the Vatican, Cardinal Prevost would come to the house of his religious community every day for Mass and lunch with his confrères. He is very well loved by them. An Australian Augustinian told me that he is a man of prayer and that he listens to people profoundly. He is a humble man who helped the religious Sisters clear the tables during the meetings of the Cardinals before the Consistory.
I asked the Augustinian why he thought the Holy Father chose the name Leo XIV. Apparently, the new Pope had spoken to his two brothers about a possible name just before the Consistory.
The Augustinian mentioned two possible reasons. At the end of the 19th century, Pope Leo XIII (who reigned from 1878 until his death in 1903) had written Rerum Novarum (“Of New Things”), the first social encyclical of the Church. Leo XIII wanted the Church to reflect on the social and economic problems of the modern world and the protection of workers at the time of the industrial revolution. Many were being treated practically as slaves. Leo XIII wanted to adapt the Catholic faith to the new challenges without compromising fundamental principles. It seems that this was an inspiration for the name chosen by the new Holy Father.
Our Lady of Good Counsel
However, there is another connection as well. Our Lady of Good Counsel is the patroness of the Augustinian Order. The new Holy Father visited her Shrine last year which is located in Genazzano, about one hour south of Rome. It began as a church entrusted to the Augustinians in 1356. Pope Leo XIII came from that region and he had many connections with Our Lady of Good Counsel.
In fact, on May 10 the Holy Father made his first trip outside the Vatican to Genazzano to visit Our Lady of Good Counsel (below)!
Pope Leo XIII had an Augustinian priest as his personal confessor. In 1884, he approved a new liturgical office for the Feast of Our Lady of Good Counsel. In 1893, he approved the white scapular of the Mother of Good Counsel, with indulgences attached to the devotion. In 1903, he elevated the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Counsel to the dignity of a Minor Basilica. In the same year, he added the invocation, Mother of Good Counsel, to the Litany of Loreto. So the Augustinians feel very connected to Pope Leo XIII. They had even hoped to have the small square near their General House in Rome named after that Pope.
It is not surprising therefore, that Pope Leo XIV picked that name, desiring that his pontificate would be in continuity with that of his predecessor. Pope Leo XIII was also the Pope who composed the prayer to St. Michael the Archangel after having a vision of the spiritual battle that we are in.
Let us pray for Pope Leo XIV and for the Church throughout the world. As the Holy Father desires, may our world be filled with the peace of Christ, may everyone recognize that God loves us all, and may the world be open to the gentle guidance of Our Lady as we traverse the pathway to Heaven!
Photo copyright Vatican Media.
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