The Rev. Robert Sirico told Newsmax on Wednesday that Pope Leo XIV will "accelerate" the revival that's currently underway in the American Catholic Church.
"I think there already is a kind of renewal going on in the Catholic Church in the United States," Sirico said on "Newsline." "We're seeing more families, more young men coming to the priesthood. I think this will accelerate it, and I think his being American — even though he was the least American of all the cardinals because he spent so many years in Peru — but I think [Pope Leo XIV has] that American sensibility he's going to bring to the Vatican bureaucracy."
"There are a whole bunch of problems dealing with finances in the church, so I think that he can bring to bear some American practicality on that," he added. "His role is to unify, and this man has a capacity to do that."
Vatican watchers were shocked on Thursday when white smoke poured from the Sistine Chapel's chimney, and Cardinal Robert Prevost was announced as the 267th Pope on the papal conclave's fourth ballot.
The Chicago native's election shattered the long-standing taboo surrounding the election of an American Pope.
Prevost, who spent many years working as a missionary in Peru before being appointed a cardinal by the late Pope Francis, took Leo as his papal name and addressed the tens of thousands of Catholic faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square with remarks in Italian, Spanish and Latin.
Sirico, who was in Rome at the time of the conclave, said he was stunned to discover the new pontiff was a United States citizen.
"I was atop a building near St. Peter's and commenting on Sky News International, and we had just gotten off the set," he recalled. "We were sitting, talking, and they said, 'Get back on, there's white smoke.' And when he came out about an hour later, I was just astounded to think that it would be an American. He was on my short list of about 12 cardinals, but I just didn't think it would be an American Pope. I thought it would take centuries to get to that point."
The prohibition on American Popes reportedly stems from the outsized geopolitical power the United States already wields in the secular world, with the idea being that putting an American in charge of the global church would tip the scales too much in favor of the U.S.
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Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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