Roughly 50 people gathered May 14 at the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis for a noon Mass of Thanksgiving to celebrate Pope Leo XIV less than a week after he was announced as the 267th pope.
“As a basilica, we have a special relationship with the Holy Father because it is the pope who gives the title of ‘basilica’ to a church,” said Johan van Parys, the Basilica’s director of liturgy and the sacred arts, before the Mass.
He explained that because of this special designation, the Basilica community both mourned Pope Francis and offered prayers for a new pope. “We had a Requiem Mass shortly after Pope Francis passed away. Then, right before the conclave began, we had a Mass of the Holy Spirit, and then today we’re celebrating the election of Pope Leo XIV.”
Basilica pastor Father Daniel Griffith celebrated the Mass and Father Joseph Gillespie concelebrated.
During his homily, Father Griffith said that he is “overjoyed with the selection of Pope Leo XIV.”
Father Griffith said that Pope Leo XIV’s messages have been “well-received by just about everybody and so that is a wonderful thing, to know that we have a new pope — habemus papam. We have a pope, and it happens to be an American pope, who would’ve thought?”
According to OSV News, the 69-year-old Pope Leo XIV was born in Chicago. He obtained a mathematics degree from Villanova University in Villanova, Pennsylvania, before joining the Order of St. Augustine. He made his solemn vows in 1981 and was ordained a priest the following year. He obtained a degree in theology from the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago and a doctorate degree from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome. A longtime missionary in Peru, the pope has both U.S. and Peruvian citizenship. Pope Leo XIV was serving as bishop of Chiclayo, Peru, when Pope Francis named him as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops in 2023.
Father Griffith said Pope Leo XIV’s strengths in his papacy will come, in part, from his experience as a missionary. “He was a missionary in Peru and later a bishop there, appointed by Pope Francis, wading in the waters with his people, advocating for his people strongly when certain things befell them.”
Father Griffith said that just as Jesus called St. Peter to an important role within the Church, so, too, are Catholics called “to preserve our communion of faith and love and to foster our mission.
“What is our mission? To continue the saving work of Jesus until he comes again,” Father Griffith continued. “And we do that by announcing the Gospel, we do that by being a source of grace in the sacraments and we do that by serving our brothers and sisters.”
Living this mission requires unity within the Church, Father Griffith said. “We’ve got to be united so we can effectively go out. And the pope has already taken small gestures toward unity in the Church.”
Father Griffith invited those in attendance to pray for Pope Leo XIV and for all members of the Church: “It’s not the pope alone, it’s the pope with all of us. … We are called to go out with the good news and that takes all of us according to our unique gifts that we have been given.”
Since the announcement of Pope Leo XIV, van Parys said there has been a lot of local interest in learning more about the new pope and what he might bring to the role.
“We believe that the Holy Spirit inspires the election and that for every age, the right pope is elected,” van Parys said. “We’ll see how Pope Leo (XIV) evolves because every pope, of course, brings their own spirituality, their own personality to the papacy.”
“I think it’s a wonderful time for the Church and the fact that he was born in the United States, I do believe that there will be some rejuvenation of the Catholic Church in the United States” as a result, van Parys said.
Mary Ritten, 87, said she is hopeful Pope Leo XIV will enact a papacy that is “welcoming (and) non-judging.”
“The older I get, the more I know that I don’t know even half about the things that are happening, so how can I possibly judge?” she said.
Ritten said the appointment of Pope Leo XIV has created a buzz among members of the Basilica community she has interacted with: “I think we’re all really enthusiastic about it.”
A May 18 Mass in St. Peter’s Square will officially inaugurate Pope Leo XIV’s papacy, according to the Vatican.
