How does one describe the emotions of being in Rome, standing in Saint Peter’s Square, watching the white smoke pour out of the Sistine Chapel? In no way did would I ever have expected to be a part of this historic event.
So writes Diocese of Lansing priest, Father Bob Irish, pictured above, who was on pilgrimage to Rome during the election of Pope Leo XIV earlier this month, May 8. Father Irish continues:
Even now, some two weeks after the announcement of Habemus Papam, “We Have a Pope”, that moment in the square is still affecting me as – to put it in the only way I can express it – a “WOW” moment.
To hear that it is an American that is now pope opens a new way for me, and I expect for many American Catholics, and any American, to see the papacy in a different way. I mean, here is a pope that, if I had the opportunity to ever meet him, I could say, “I’m from Lansing,” and he would know exactly where Lansing is!
Here is a pope that probably ate Pop Tarts, Kellogg’s Corn Flakes, maybe watch B-rated cowboy movies at the theatre. In other words, for the first time I can identify with this pope and come to see him as an inspiration that “all is possible” with God (Matthew 19:26).
My hope and expectations are that he will help to revitalize the American Church and bring people back to the Faith who abandon it for whatever reason.
Both I and two former parishioners, who are now friends, had set this personal pilgrimage to Rome some five month before. We got to Saint Peter’s Square a couple of hours early.
About half an hour before the smoke emerged out of the chimney, we were hot from the burning sun, tired and exhausted, waiting, waiting, and waiting for the moment we were hoping for.
Then…the smoke poured out, white puffs, like the clouds, and the noise and excitement from the hundreds of thousands of the people in the square, and all the way down the street that leads to the Vatican, erupted into a frenzy of shouts – all in different languages.
In that moment, we were no longer feeling the heat of the burning sun, no longer feeling tired, and no longer exhausted. A new energy took hold of us and filled us with a profound joy even before the Cardinal Deacon, Cardinal Mamberti, came out and announced who this new Pope was.
And when his name was announced? Within a few minutes the bells of Saint Peter’s began to ring out, and from there we heard a second set of bells, and then another, and another after that, until, I guess, all the bells throughout Rome were ringing out announcing: We Have a Pope!
This was a “wow” moment that, for me, is still sinking in. A “wow” moment that this pope, Pope Leo XIV, is a pope for all people; but he is, to me, an American Pope that I can identify with.
