ROME (AP) — Audio system blasted songs together with “Born in the usA.” and “American Pie” as six cardinal electors from the US gathered in Rome on Friday to share their ideas on the election of the primary U.S.-born pope, Cardinal Robert Prevost.
“I took a have a look at Bob … and he had his head in his fingers and I used to be praying for him, as a result of I couldn’t think about what occurs to a human being while you’re going through one thing like that,” mentioned Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark, New Jersey, of the second proper after casting his vote within the Sistine Chapel. “After which when he accepted, it was prefer it was made for him.”
Sooner or later after the Chicago-born Prevost turned Pope Leo XIV, the cardinals met on a stage adorned with the Stars and Stripes and a Vatican flag on the Pontifical North American Faculty. The hilltop establishment for U.S. seminarians is a brief stroll from St. Peter’s Basilica, the place Leo made his first speech to the world on Thursday night as the brand new chief of the Catholic Church’s world trustworthy of 1.4 billion individuals.
The cardinals highlighted how his American nationality wasn’t a deciding issue, particularly in probably the most geographically various conclave in historical past, although many rejoiced in it.
“The truth that he was born in the US of America, boy, that’s a way of pleasure and gratitude for us,” Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York mentioned.
However Dolan and others added that Leo’s expertise as an Augustinian in addition to ministry in Peru — the place he additionally acquired citizenship — and main the Vatican’s Dicastery for Bishops made him a “citizen of the world.”
“In a really actual sense, Cardinal Prevost in his life has been at his core a missionary, in each means,” Cardinal Robert McElroy of Washington mentioned.
Additionally they mentioned that Leo may construct bridges to all world leaders, together with U.S. President Donald Trump. U.S. Catholic bishops have had a fraught relationship with Trump, particularly over the crackdown on immigration, and Pope Francis had sparred with Trump since he first was a presidential candidate.
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However cardinals within the conclave had been most involved with “who amongst us can carry us collectively, who amongst us can strengthen the religion and convey the religion to locations the place it has grown weak,” Cardinal Wilton Gregory mentioned.
Earlier, the primary U.S. Black prelate to imagine the rank of cardinal had joked that he and Leo had chatted “from one south sider of Chicago to a different.”
America had 10 voting cardinals within the conclave, the second-highest variety of any nation after Italy. 4 of them at present function archbishops within the U.S. — Blase Cupich of Chicago in addition to Dolan, McElroy and Tobin. Becoming a member of them had been archbishops emeritus Gregory and Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston in Texas, in addition to French Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the apostolic nuncio to the US.
They urged the trustworthy to see the conclave not as a political marketing campaign, however as a grave selection pushed by the Holy Spirit for a world non secular chief.
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“This wasn’t our first rodeo,” mentioned Dolan, referring to the church’s election of greater than 260 popes in its 2,000-year historical past.
He mentioned that the “ecstasy” within the crowd gathered in St. Peter’s Sq. on Thursday night time exploded when the much-expected “ Habemus Papam ” — Latin for “now we have a pope” — rang out from the loggia, even earlier than the brand new pope’s identification was revealed.
“There shall be a person on the window on Sunday … papa is again,” Dolan added, referencing the blessing that popes have lengthy bestowed on the crowds on Sundays, and which Leo — “il papa” in Italian — is scheduled to ship on Could 11. “It’s the workplace of the successor of St. Peter that endures.”
A number of of the boys referred to the person — who they’ve recognized for years as Bob or Robert — by his papal title, Leo. On Friday, they joked with one another and the journalists — together with Dolan and Tobin saying that the conclave may need have been quick, as a result of the primary night time’s meal wasn’t conducive to sticking round.
However they highlighted that in the end what delivered a majority in lower than 24 hours stemmed from discernment and the grace of God.
“We had been in a position to deal with one another with nice respect, to pay attention to one another throughout the congregations beforehand, after which when it got here time for voting, issues appeared to simply jell and go in a path that set us on a path of unity,” Cupich mentioned. “If solely the remainder of us, in our lives and on the earth, may have that mad sprint to unity that we appeared to have in conclave.”
Colleen Barry contributed to this report from Soave.
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