Cardinal Tobin: Habemus Papam! We Have a Pope!
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Vol. 6. No.17
My dear sisters and brothers in Christ,
The past several weeks have been a rollercoaster ride of emotions for me personally and for all of us in the Universal Church. This tumultuous ride began with grief over the loss of our beloved Pope Francis. The day that I first saw his body laid out in St. Peter’s Basilica was a tremendous shock. I felt that I had lost my North Star and my sense of direction was lost completely. Then, I remembered our deceased Holy Father’s own words delivered just days earlier on Easter Sunday:
The resurrection of Jesus is indeed the basis of our hope. For in the light of this event, hope is no longer an illusion. Thanks to Christ — crucified and risen from the dead — hope does not disappoint! Spes non confundit! (cf. Rom 5:5). That hope is not an evasion, but a challenge; it does not delude, but empowers us.
Hope became my dominant emotion, not eliminating my sense of grief, but placing it in its proper context. “Thanks to Christ,” Pope Francis reminded us, “hope does not disappoint.” Because of our Redeemer’s death and resurrection, hope is a challenge that we can accept with confidence in the grace of the Holy Spirit.
This confidence allowed me to overcome my fears and to fulfill my sacred responsibility as a Cardinal Elector with a strong conviction that the Holy Spirit is guiding our Church, helping us to discern God’s will for the present and future.
This was my first opportunity to render this particular service to the Church, and I approached the conclave with a sense of urgency given the particular circumstances of our world today. Now I pray that, God willing, this conclave will be my last because I trust that God will bless Our new pope with a long life and many years of faithful service to God’s people.
The emotions of grief and fear, confidence and hope that I experienced during the papal conclave were succeeded by an overwhelming sense of joy once Pope Leo XIV accepted the challenge to serve as Saint Peter’s successor, the next Bishop of Rome. He is now our Holy Father, the pope, and on behalf of all the people in our four counties of northern New Jersey, I welcome him wholeheartedly and pledge our love and prayerful support.
Hope does not disappoint. When we place our trust in the working of the Holy Spirit, God provides everything we need to help us remain faithful to our calling to be His witnesses—missionary disciples who journey together as Pilgrims of Hope.
Please join me in praying for our new Holy Father. May he be for us a visible source and foundation of our unity in faith and our communion with the Lord and one another.
Sincerely yours in Christ the Redeemer,
Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, C.Ss.R.
Archbishop of Newark
Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, C.Ss.R. statement on the election of His Holiness Pope Leo XIV
With a grateful heart, I thank God for the gift of our new Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, the Church has been blessed once again with a beloved shepherd to lead us in faith and unity. I offer my fervent prayers for our new Pope as he embraces this sacred ministry of service. May God endow him with wisdom, courage, and compassion, and may his leadership inspire the whole Church to walk ever more closely with Christ and to love one another more deeply.
Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, C.Ss.R.
Archbishop of Newark
Chicago native Cardinal Prevost elected pope, takes name Leo XIV
Catholic News Service, May 8, 2025
Cardinal Robert F. Prevost, the Chicago-born prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops under Pope Francis, was elected the 267th pope May 8 and took the name Pope Leo XIV.
He is the first North American to be elected pope and, before the conclave, was the U.S. cardinal most mentioned as a potential successor of St. Peter.
The white smoke poured from the chimney on the roof of the Sistine Chapel at 6:07 p.m. Rome time and a few minutes later the bells of St. Peter’s Basilica began to ring.
About 20 minutes later the Vatican police band and two dozen members of the Pontifical Swiss Guard marched into St. Peter’s Square. They soon were joined by the marching band of the Italian Carabinieri, a branch of military police, and by units of the other branches of the Italian military.
As soon as news began to spread, people from all over Rome ran to join the tens of thousands who were already in the square for the smoke watch. Rome Mayor Roberto Gualtieri was among them.
French Cardinal Dominique Mamberti, protodeacon of the College of Cardinals, appeared on the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica at 7:12 p.m. He told the crowd: “I announce to you a great joy. We have a pope (‘Habemus papam’),” saying the cardinal’s name in Latin and announcing the name by which he will be called.
Cardinals over the age of 80, who were not eligible to enter the conclave, joined the crowd in the square. Among them were Cardinals Seán P. O’Malley, the retired archbishop of Boston; Donald W. Wuerl, the retired archbishop of Washington; and Marc Ouellet, retired prefect of the Congregation for Bishops.
A citizen of the U.S. and Peru
A longtime missionary in Peru, the 69-year-old pope holds both U.S. and Peruvian citizenship.
La Repubblica, the major Italian daily, described him April 25 as “cosmopolitan and shy,” but also said he was “appreciated by conservatives and progressives. He has global visibility in a conclave in which few (cardinals) know each other.”
That visibility comes from the fact that as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops for the past two years, he was instrumental in helping Pope Francis choose bishops for many Latin-rite dioceses, he met hundreds of bishops during their “ad limina” visits to Rome and was called to assist the world’s Latin-rite bishops “in all matters concerning the correct and fruitful exercise of the pastoral office entrusted to them.”
The new pope was serving as bishop of Chiclayo, Peru, when Pope Francis called him to the Vatican in January 2023.
During a talk at St. Jude Parish in Chicago in August, the then-cardinal said Pope Francis nominated him “specifically because he did not want someone from the Roman Curia to take on this role. He wanted a missionary; he wanted someone from outside; he wanted someone who would come in with a different perspective.”
In a March 2024 interview with Catholic News Service, he said Pope Francis’ decision in 2022 to name three women as full members of the dicastery, giving them input on the selection of bishops “contributes significantly to the process of discernment in looking for who we hope are the best candidates to serve the church in episcopal ministry.”
To deter attitudes of clericalism among bishops, he said, “it’s important to find men who are truly interested in serving, in preaching the Gospel, not just with eloquent words, but rather with the example and witness they give.”
In fact, the cardinal said, Pope Francis’ “most effective and important” bulwark against clericalism was his being “a pastor who preaches by gesture.”
In an interview in 2023 with Vatican News, then-Cardinal Prevost spoke about the essential leadership quality of a bishop.
“Pope Francis has spoken of four types of closeness: closeness to God, to brother bishops, to priests and to all God’s people,” he said. “One must not give in to the temptation to live isolated, separated in a palace, satisfied with a certain social level or a certain level within the church.”
“And we must not hide behind an idea of authority that no longer makes sense today,” he said. “The authority we have is to serve, to accompany priests, to be pastors and teachers.”
As prefect of the dicastery then-Cardinal Prevost also served as president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, where nearly 40% of the world’s Catholics reside.
A Chicago native, he also served as prior general of the Augustinians and spent more than two decades serving in Peru, first as an Augustinian missionary and later as bishop of Chiclayo.
Soon after coming to Rome to head the dicastery, he told Vatican News that bishops have a special mission of promoting the unity of the church.
“The lack of unity is a wound that the church suffers, a very painful one,” he said in May 2023. “Divisions and polemics in the church do not help anything. We bishops especially must accelerate this movement toward unity, toward communion in the church.”
Native of Chicago
Pope Leo was born Sept. 14, 1955, in Chicago, Illinois. He holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the Augustinian-run Villanova University in Pennsylvania and joined the order in 1977, making his solemn vows in 1981. He holds a degree in theology from the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago and a doctorate from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome.
He joined the Augustinian mission in Peru in 1985 and largely worked in the country until 1999 when he was elected head of the Augustinians’ Chicago-based province. From 2001 to 2013, he served as prior general of the worldwide order. In 2014, Pope Francis named him bishop of Chiclayo, in northern Peru, and the pope asked him also to be apostolic administrator of Callao, Peru, from April 2020 to May 2021.
The new pope speaks English, Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese and can read Latin and German.
This article was written by Cindy Wooden for Catholic News Service.
First “Urbi et Orbi” Blessing of the Holy Father Leo XIV
Peace be with you all!
Dear brothers and sisters, this is the first greeting of the Risen Christ, the good shepherd who gave his life for God’s flock. I too would like this greeting of peace to enter into your heart, to reach your families, all people, wherever they may be, all peoples, all the earth. Peace be with you!
This is the peace of the Risen Christ, a disarmed and disarming peace, a humble and preserving peace. It comes from God. God, who loves all of us, without any limits or conditions. We still keep in our ears the weak but always courageous voice of Pope Francis, who blessed Rome – the Pope who blessed Rome and the world that day on Easter morning.
Allow me to continue that same blessing. God loves us, all of us, evil will not prevail. We are all in God’s hands. Therefore, without fear, united, hand in hand with God and among ourselves, let us go forward. We are disciples of Christ, Christ goes before us, and the world needs his light. Humanity needs him like a bridge to reach God and his love. You too, help us to build bridges with dialogue, with encounter, uniting us all so as to be one people always in peace. Thank you, Pope Francis!
I also wish to thank all my Cardinal brothers who chose me to be the Successor of Peter and to walk together with you, as a united Church always seeking peace and justice, always seeking to work as men and women faithful to Jesus Christ, without fear, to proclaim the Gospel, to be missionaries.
I am an Augustinian, a son of Saint Augustine, who said: “With you I am a Christian and for you a bishop”. In this sense, we can all work together towards that homeland that God has prepared for us.
To the Church of Rome, a special greeting! [Applause]. We must strive together to be a missionary Church, building bridges, dialogue, always open to receiving with open arms for everyone, like this square, open to all, to all who need our charity, our presence, dialogue and love.
And if I may also say a word, a greeting to everyone, and in particular to my dear diocese of Chiclayo, in Peru, where a faithful people have accompanied their bishop, shared their faith and given so much, in order to continue to be the faithful Church of Jesus Christ.
To all of you, brothers and sisters of Rome, of Italy, of all the world, we want to be a synodal Church, a Church on the move, a Church that always strives for peace, that always strives for charity, that always strives to be close, especially to those who suffer.
Today is the day of the Supplica to Our Lady of Pompeii. Our Mother Mary always wants to walk with us, to stay close, to help us with her intercession and her love.
So, I would like to pray with you. Let us pray together for this new mission, for all the Church, for peace in the world, and let us ask Mary, our Mother, for this special grace.
My Prayer for You
Please join me in praying for our new Holy Father, Leo XIV, using these words from the Roman missal:
O God, who in your providential design
willed that your Church be built
upon blessed Peter, whom you set over the other Apostles,
look with favor, we pray, on Leo, our Pope
and grant that he, whom you have made Peter’s successor,
may be for your people a visible source and foundation
of unity in faith and of communion.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, forever and ever.
Amen.