A recently installed chimney on the roof of St. John Vianney College Seminary (SJV) in St. Paul billowed white smoke into a clear, blue sky May 8, mirroring the smoke that emitted from the Sistine Chapel’s chimney in Vatican City and signaling the election of a new pope.
“The chimney was one of the three phases that we came up with to prepare for the celebration of the new Holy Father; we wanted to have some sort of celebration as soon as he was elected,” said 20-year-old Brennan Crow, a junior at SJV. Crow said planning was underway less than a week before Cardinal Robert Prevost was named Pope Leo XIV.
Crow said Father Jonathan Kelly, rector of the seminary, had the idea to install the chimney; “he had a friend who owns a sauna company,” Crow said. “So, we took a sauna stove with a bronze pipe, just like they have in the Sistine Chapel, and we hooked a fog machine up to it.”
Crow joked that “we’re not as advanced as the Sistine Chapel,” and said different materials were used to recreate the two types of smoke. To create black smoke (signaling the College of Cardinals had not yet reached a two-thirds majority decision on a new pope), the seminarians used black smoke bombs. To create white smoke, Crow said a mixture of water and a special soap was added to the fog machine.
Crow said that earlier that day, as he and some fellow seminarians were going over plans for a procession — another phase to mark the announcement of the new pope — Crow received a text from a friend that white smoke was visible from the Sistine Chapel.
“I was like, he’s gotta be kidding me, there’s no way that’s happening this soon,” Crow said. “But we started the chain of events; we were well-planned.”
With the white smoke from the chimney as a backdrop, students, staff and seminarians gathered on the lawn outside SJV. The roughly 50 T-shirts and 70 mugs that the seminarians had made for the occasion went quickly.
The procession included a mock motorcade complete with decorated golf carts and seminarian Nicholas Deutsch dressed as a pope. As the procession wound through the University of St. Thomas’ campus, seminarians handed out over 200 boxes of candy and over 400 ice cream treats, even tossing some into the crowds of those gathered.
“Our seminary, they always show up and show out for big events,” said 24-year-old Kylie Watts, a student in the University of St. Thomas’ Graduate School of Professional Psychology who was observing the crowd. “It’s cool that they’re being really celebratory of the new pope. And it’s cool that we have an American pope; I never thought I’d see the day that that happened. It’s cool to see people be excited about it.”
“We knew there was a tradition here prior, to go big and celebrate a lot when the (new) pope came in” said Joseph Johnson, a sophomore at SJV, as crowds gathered around the mock motorcade that had stopped briefly outside the Anderson Student Center. Shouts of “Leo! Leo! Leo!” and “First American pope!” could be heard. Originally from Chicago, Pope Leo XIV became the first American-born pope in history.
“I was just shocked that we have an American pope, I wasn’t expecting that at all,” said Father Kelly, who was also part of the crowd.
Father Kelly said that then-Cardinal Prevost visited SJV seminarians at the Pontifical Irish College in Rome last fall; “so, our men had dinner with (Pope) Leo XIV, about six months before he’s been elected.”
Crow recalled being at the college — where, he explained, SJV seminarians spend their semester abroad in Rome — and listening to the presentation from then-Cardinal Prevost, who was serving as the prefect for the Vatican’s Dicastery for Bishops.
“He came in and he gave a wonderful presentation on the process of how that works,” Crow said.
At the time, the thought that he might be listening to a future pope didn’t even cross Crow’s mind. “It’s one of those things, thinking back like: If only you knew.” But Crow said he did note then-Cardinal Prevost’s “dedication to his work and his willingness to share that with us … he was very, very open to our questions.”
Matthew Schumacher, 22, who is in his second year at SJV, said watching Pope Leo XIV as he approached the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica “was incredible to see.” Schumacher said he felt “an overwhelming sense of joy, just seeing him come out onto the papal balcony, to know that this is now my Holy Father.”
Crow agreed. “We could barely contain our excitement and joy, and we wanted to hear what he had to say but we were just so excited that that’s the first American pope. … (S)ome (seminarians) just ran like a frenzy up to the fifth floor (of SJV) to grab the American flag, to throw that into the procession.”
Reflecting on what he hopes to see from the new papacy, Schumacher said, “Part of the role of the pope is to shepherd people, to love Jesus and to love like Jesus loved. To see an increase in faith, hope and charity in the world, I think would be a great thing.”
Johnson said he hopes “to see a continuation of the Church’s tradition … I think I’d just like to see a pope who really loves Jesus, who really wants to spread that (love).”
Tess Munshower, 24, and a graduate student in the university’s leadership and student affairs program, hopes to see a continuation of values that Pope Francis championed, “particularly with social justice issues.”
Munshower mentioned that in Pope Leo XIV’s first address, “he’s saying he’s a pope for the people, for everyone, the whole world — that’s what I hope for.”
“We’re in a time where we need to have more community and less division,” Watts added. “I would like to see him (Pope Leo XIV) continue the legacy of Pope Francis of coming back to the root of the Church being a Church based in love and in welcoming.”
Ahead of an afternoon Mass on campus to celebrate the new pope, many who had gathered to see the procession lingered, an energetic buzz continuing through the crowd.
“It’s a worldwide celebration,” Schumacher said as music played from a speaker nearby. “Obviously the Church is very, very happy that we have a Holy Father again. Even in the short time that we didn’t have a pope, that was so painful. So now finally to have (Pope) Leo is amazing.”
Crow agreed. “(F)or all the Catholics, for the Christians and honestly for the whole world, this is a time of unity, of joy and of hope.”
The St. Paul Seminary and welcoming a new pope
Meanwhile, celebration of Pope Leo XIV took place at The St. Paul Seminary, also in St. Paul.
“It is really nice to have a successor to Peter in the chair, one who we can rely on for spiritual guidance, for spiritual fatherhood, to be an example to all of us and he’s one of our own from here in the United States,” Deacon Alexander Marquette, who is preparing for ordination to the priesthood May 31, said in a video the seminary shared. “Very grateful to God to have someone to take over the role of Peter.”
“The energy was just absolutely electric,” Deacon Marquette said about what it was like to be gathered in the seminary, watching the announcement. “Many of our brothers from the seminary … are studying in Rome” and he and his fellow seminarians tried finding them in the crowd at St. Peter’s Square.
“To see the whole Church united in St. Peter’s Square was really amazing,” Deacon Marquette said.
“It’s exciting because we’re all about family and when Jesus gave the keys to Peter, he gave the keys to a papa, to a father who would take care of the family. And in all the things that we’re facing these days in the world, we need to be fathered, we need to be cared for, provided for, protected,” said Jeff Cavins — speaker, author and instructor at The St. Paul Seminary Catechetical Institute — in a video the seminary shared. “People from all over the world are rejoicing over something that transcends politics. It is familial, and it’s good.”
“It’s fantastic to be here with the seminarians, because they are the future priests and the ones who are going to be bringing this familial family message out to the people and, of course, they are going to have that connection with the pope,” Cavins added.
Also in a video shared by the seminary, Father Taphorn acknowledged the importance of the moment in Church history.
“As Catholics, we really do believe that Christ is alive, that he continues to appoint shepherds, that he entrusted to St. Peter guidance of the Church and now to his successors,” Father Taphorn said. “And so here we are, almost 2,000 years after the Resurrection, and we have the gift of a new pope, a new successor of St. Peter.”
“Obviously there’s a lot of excitement and there will be a lot more to come,” Father Taphorn said, also acknowledging that first would come prayer for the new pope. “We’re grateful for this day and we’ll continue to receive the gift that God has given to us and to the Church.”
