‘Surprise’ and joy in Riverhead at election of first American pope

Local Catholics are celebrating the election of Pope Leo XIV, the first American-born pontiff, with special masses and prayers.

The daily mass at St. John the Evangelist in Riverhead yesterday was offered for the new pontiff, celebrating his election and praying for him as he leads the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics during turbulent times.

Pope Leo XIV is the first pope born in North America. Robert Francis Prevost was born in Chicago, Illinois in September 1955. Raised in a Chicago suburb, he attended a parish elementary school and St. Augustine Seminary High School before earning a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Villanova University in Pennsylvania. After teaching high school physics and math, he earned a master of divinity from Catholic Theological Union, followed by a doctorate in canon law in Rome.

The new pope has strong ties to South America, the homeland of his predecessor, Pope Francis.  As a friar of the Order of St. Augustine, the Rev. Robert Prevost spent more than a decade as a missionary in Peru. He was elected to lead the Augustinian order, and served as its prior general from 2001 to 2013. After that, Pope Francis elevated him to the position of bishop of a Peruvian diocese in 2014, and he served in that capacity from 2015 to 2023. Pope Francis appointed him prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America in 2023 and named him a cardinal later that year.  He was elected pope on May 8 in a conclave of the electors in the College of Cardinals in the Sistine Chapel of St. Peter’s Basilica.

Local priests and parishioners are praying for unity and peace in the church under Pope Leo’s leadership. While many say they were happily surprised at the elevation of an American-born cardinal to lead the church, they expressed joy at strong indications from Pope Leo that he will follow in the footsteps of Pope Francis.

“We rejoice that we have a pope who, by all appearances, seems to be somebody who has the heart of a shepherd, someone who wants to pass the people, guide them, lead them, keep them safe from dangers that might lead them off the path, a person who cares for the poor — and his track record shows that he walked with, lived with, and served the poor in many ways—that he also is firm in faith, that he knows how to teach clearly, that he will not be ambiguous, like sometimes I am, that he will be clear to the point of calling forth what we need to hear,” Father Larry Duncklee said in his homily at yesterday’s mass at St. John the Evangelist.  

“So we rejoice this day, as we pray for Pope Leo, and as he begins this wonderful, very heavy responsibility to lead the church and to lead the world, to find Christ, to live as Christians, to live as people who relish the gift that God has given us,” Duncklee said. 

He asked parishioners to continue to pray for the pope and for the entire church.  “Pray that, as Pope Leo mentioned in his first words, that people would be at peace with each other, that we bring peace to each other, that we be a listening people, a synodal church, and that we care for the less fortunate, that we advocate for them, work for them, and that we do this all as one in unity with Christ and with each other,” Duncklee said. “And so that is the way that we celebrate the new pope.”

In an interview last week, just after Pope Leo XIV was introduced to the world, Duncklee admitted he was “shocked” at the election of an American pope. “But I’m not really one who follows the church episcopy,” Duncklee said.

As for the new pope, he said, “I never heard his name before. I didn’t know him.” 

But, he said, he’s impressed with the choice. “Just like Francis, he is from a religious order, not a diocesan priest or bishop. Like Francis, he was in charge of his order. So they had a sense of a much wider community than just a certain diocese, and he spent half his priesthood, and more than that, in Peru as a missionary, which makes him not just an American. It makes him a world citizen, which is more than many of the popes in the past and many of the cardinals.” 

Pope Leo’s missionary roots speak to the mission of the church, he said, to spread the gospel — the message of Jesus Christ.  The heart of the gospel is social justice, Duncklee said.  

“If you take the social justice message out of the gospels, the gospels don’t exist. And some of our bishops have forgotten that throughout the world. And that’s a shame. I would actually say it’s a sin,” he said. 

“We need to recognize that Christ spoke about the marginalized, the poor, the widows, the orphans. He saw everybody as the children of God. And Francis saw that. And Francis broke down some of those barriers,” Ducklee said. Now Leo has the opportunity to even widen and make that more. “He’s a missionary,  and the church has always been a missionary church, from day one, sent to proclaim the message.”

In his first message after his introduction as the 267th pontiff, Pope Leo XIV spoke of synodality. Francis worked to bring that back, Duncklee said. “The basis of that is that the bishops around the world need to listen to their people. They can’t have their minds made up to listen to their people, listen to their priests, listen to advisors. Leo is saying. ‘I believe in what Francis is doing. I want to continue doing this.’ For that,”  Duncklee said, “I’m overjoyed.”

Father Peter Garry, a retired priest who previously worked at St. John the Evangelist in the 1990s and who joined the pastor in celebrating the mass yesterday, said after the service that the election of Pope Leo XIV is “a blessing for the church. Praise God he will continue the good work of Pope Francis.”  

Father Ralph Sommer, who will become the pastor of St. John the Baptist in Wading River next month, said in an email on May 8 that the election of an American to follow Pope Francis was “a real surprise.”

“I’m not sure this was a symbolic move on their part as I suspect they looked past nationality to his experience as a pastor, a linguist and someone who knew the inner workings of the Vatican. But because he knows our nation, I’m looking forward to whatever inspiration and challenge he will offer to a culture that he knows well,” Sommer wrote. 

Celeste Tracy of Aquebogue, a parishioner at St. John the Evangelist, expressed her excitement about the new pope after yesterday’s mass.  “I hope Leo continues Francis’ legacy of unconditional love for all people,” she said.

Tracy said her favorite quote of Pope Francis is ‘Who am I to judge?’ The remark, which suggested he would not judge priests for their sexual orientation,  was a controversial utterance among many in the church. While traveling back to Rome from his first foreign trip in July 2013, Pope Francis told reporters “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” 

Francis did not change or criticize church doctrine opposing homosexuality, but his remark was seen as being more compassionate than language used by his predecessors. 

The sentiment Francis expressed was “Christ-like,”  Tracy said. 

“I hope  [Leo] continues the synodal focus that will be inclusive of all people,” Tracy said, “and that he continues to focus on love and peace that is inclusive of all life on earth.”