The Rev. Peter Karalus never figured he would see the day that an American was elected pope.
So when Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, a native of Chicago, was announced Thursday as Pope Leo XIV, Karalus said he was as stunned as anyone.
“Was I hearing correctly?†is the reaction Karalus said he had upon learning the results of the papal election. “It was kind of surreal, hearing words that you never thought you would hear.â€
It’s the first time in history that an American will serve as pontiff, the leader of 1.4 billion Catholics worldwide.
“It is a source of tremendous pride that in this complex and difficult age that the Holy Spirit has guided the Cardinal Electors to choose not only this fellow countryman, but a person of profound faith, broad perspective and hopeful vision,†Bishop Michael W. Fisher said in a statement to The News. “May he unite and inspire us to build bridges and always to see the good in one another, to serve the most vulnerable among us, and to proclaim boldly the Good News we have received as children of God.â€
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Karalus, vicar general and moderator of the curia for the Buffalo Diocese, called it a day of joy and hope in the church, and especially for the church in the United States, which has been battered over the past two decades by revelations of cover-ups of clergy sexual abuse.
“It’s comforting to know there’s somebody who understands the American church, the American culture,†Karalus added.
The new papacy was also an opportunity to revitalize the Catholic faith in the U.S. and bring healing for abuse survivors, he said.
The prevailing wisdom until Thursday was that cardinals steered clear of American papal candidates out of concern that the world’s great superpower would be able to exert too much influence over one of its own if he were the church’s supreme leader.
“Those stereotypes die hard,†said Karalus.
“It’s comforting to know there’s somebody who understands the American church, the American culture,†the Rev. Peter J. Karalus said about the election of Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost to become Pope Leo XIV.
The new Holy Father’s work as a missionary priest and high-level church administrator is the kind of balance that Pope Francis also brought with him into his papacy, Karalus said. “He truly has pastoral experience, boots on the ground, so to speak.â€
Monsignor Robert Zapfel was equally surprised by Prevost’s election, but he noted that the Augustine priest might be as much Peruvian and Italian as he is American, given his background as a missionary and more recently as the head of a key Vatican office, the Dicastery for Bishops under Francis.
“It’s very surprising, but it does show the breadth of the church,†said Zapfel, who studied for seven years in Rome and worked for five years within the Vatican. He predicted that Pope Leo XIV would work quickly to allay any fears over outsized American influence on Vatican inner workings.
“I think it’s an advantage, too, that’s he’s from the Roman Curia, one of the leaders of the pope’s cabinet, so to speak,†said Zapfel. “He would know the other players in town already. He’s not starting from scratch, getting to know how things are done and why things are done that way and who to contact for what.â€
Zapfel, who has served as pastor of St. Leo the Great parish in Amherst for many years, described the new pontiff as a “hybrid†and someone who has “a more universal perspective,†having lived in the United States, South America and Rome.
He reflected on Prevost’s selection of Leo XIV as “maybe sending a message†that he would be a bridge back to the pontificate of Leo XIII from 1878 to 1903, which was marked by a deep concern for workers’ rights and the dignity of human work amid the Second Industrial Revolution.
