On May 8, the Roman Catholic Church elected Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost as its new pope.
Pope Leo XIV is the first American pope in the history of the Catholic Church, which spans some 2,000 years. Born in Chicago, the new pope is also a citizen of Peru.
Fr. Bryan Ochs, local pastor of St. Columban Catholic Church in Yelm, expressed surprise over the recent selection. In a letter to parishioners, Ochs said he was “stunned for many reasons.”
“I didn’t think that we would see white smoke that soon,” Ochs wrote. “I also didn’t expect an American. A couple weeks ago I said, ‘Expect the unexpected.’ Well, that certainly proved to be true.”
Ochs said that he thought Cardinal Prevost, in his role as prefect of the Dicastery of Bishops, along with Pope Francis, often selected solid, well-liked pastors to be bishops, and that there didn’t seem to be any ideological preference among their selections.
“This is actually a bit of a shift,” Ochs wrote to his parishioners. “Prior to Pope Francis, the path to becoming a bishop didn’t often pass through parish life. It passed through high level chancery positions and teaching posts in seminaries. Thus, many of our bishops really didn’t have a good grasp of parish life and ministry, which often led to conflict and tension between priests and their bishops. Cardinal Prevost and Pope Francis focused on finding successful pastors to become bishops, and I think new bishops ordained in the last five years or so have been good picks.”
Ochs said that, while he thought Pope Leo XIV spoke “excellent Italian,” he welcomed the pope’s decision to use a script for his “first address to the world.”
“Some of the most confusing moments of the Francis Pontificate were moments in which he spoke off the cuff, opening his words to unintended interpretations by the media. Pope Leo XIV didn’t strike me as being that type of man. I think that when Pope Leo speaks it will be very thoughtful and eloquent.”
