Catholic College Students Still Excited About Their American Pope| National Catholic Register

There are some moments one will never forget. 

The election of Pope Leo XIV will be one of those moments for me. 

All morning, I watched the chimney live feed as I tried to study for final exams. By 10:40 a.m. CT, In need of a study break, I walked outside to call my mom, not expecting to see smoke until around noon. 

At 11:08 a.m. local time, a group of friends huddled around a phone shouted at me as I walked by, “Jack! We have white smoke!”

I received a notification on my phone, and then another. 

“Mom, I’ve got to go!” I said, as I hung up the phone before she could even respond.

I rushed over to my friends, as we clamored over the phone with excitement. Urgently, we dashed inside to Benedictine College’s coffee shop, Holy Grounds, to find a table. 

There, we found students, laptops out at every table, animatedly discussing their final papal predictions. We joined them and settled in for the long wait. 

When protodeacon Cardinal Dominique Mamberti stepped onto the loggia, a hush fell across the usually rambunctious coffee shop.

My friends and I bent over the computer, listening intently as Cardinal Mamberti said,

“Eminentissimum ac reverendissimum Dominum Robertum Franciscum
Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae Cardinalem Prevost.”

My jaw dropped.

“An American?” I muttered looking at my friends.

They too were stunned.  

So was everybody else in the still-silent coffee shop. 

Until somebody started chanting, “USA, USA, USA.”

Within seconds, the coffee shop roared with the chants of patriotic Catholic college students.

That excitement has not dwindled. Here and at other college campuses, students continue to celebrate the election of the new supreme pontiff, elated to have an American pope. 

Amid my own excitement, I have had many conversations with fellow college students.

Many like Laura Campbell, a senior at Benedictine, express how they already feel a personal connection to the new Pope. 

“I was so excited to hear that we had an American pope,” Campbell said. “I feel like I have a personal connection with Pope Leo because we have this similar background; it gives you common ground with someone when they grew up close to you.”

At the University of Notre Dame, everybody is still talking about the new Pope, trying to see if they had a connection to the first American pontiff, senior Elizabeth Hale shared. 

“So many of my classmates are from Chicago, and all day students discovered random connections to the Pope,” Hale told me. My roommate grew up in Chicago, and she found a picture of her older brother with the Pope when he visited her brother’s high school as a bishop.” 

Amid the excitement of an American pontiff, many students were filled with hope as they contemplated the new pontificate, anticipating the new leadership style of the Church.

Observed Patrick Olson, a junior at Benedictine. “Over the past few days, Pope Leo has shown himself to not only be a holy, prayerful man, but he’s also shown himself to be a real figure for unity.” 

“He seems to be a man who will be able to be a pontiff for the entire Church throughout the world.” 

In Leo XIV, many young people see a unifying figure. After watching both secular and Church commentators obsess over conclave politics, watching as the Church and the media rallied behind the new Pope reassured restless hearts. 

“Things easily turn political these days, especially during the conclave, and I think it’s easy for young people to split to one side of the political aisle completely,” Campbell said. “It seems like Leo XIV has been this unifying figure, which is important for us right now.” 

“I hope that he works to build unity in the Church,” she added.

For me too, the election of the new Pope was a welcome relief. 

Like my peers, I too was a bit anxious.

So I went to Mass to pray for the new Pope. Quickly, in the silence of prayer, I felt hope and excitement. 

This Pope is my pastor, my shepherd, as I navigate the challenges of growing into adulthood 

Multiple friends remarked that Leo will likely be the Pope when they get ordained, or marry and raise kids. His words and writing will guide our young adult and adult lives. 

“I realized shortly after we met Pope Leo that he would be the defining pope of my life. It is likely that my future children will be graduating high school before I see another conclave,” Hale shared. “I feel so much excitement for the future of the Church. I believe Pope Leo XIV can bring people together in a way that doesn’t seek dialogue for its own sake, but to build bridges that bring people to know Christ.” 

As Pope Leo XIV noted in his first homily, we are to respond to the challenges and crises of the world by “moving aside so that Christ may remain, to make oneself small so that he may be known and glorified (cf. John 3:30), to spend oneself to the utmost so that all may have the opportunity to know and love him.”