St. James the Less Catholic Parish

Former president Joe Biden’s office revealed his prostate cancer diagnosis on Sunday, May 18, 2025. / Credit: Maxim Elramsisy/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 19, 2025 / 16:42 pm (CNA).

The Diocese of Wilmington, Delaware, and politicians from both major political parties are urging the country to pray for former president Joe Biden after he was diagnosed with prostate cancer.

Biden’s office announced on Sunday that the former president was diagnosed last week with an “aggressive form” of prostate cancer that has spread to his bones, stating that doctors found a prostate nodule after Biden experienced “increasing urinary symptoms.”

“While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive, which allows for effective management,” the statement added. “The president and his family are reviewing treatment options with his physicians.”

The news was met with overwhelming support and calls for prayers, including from the Diocese of Wilmington, the diocese to which the country’s second Catholic president belongs.

“As Catholics, we are called to carry out Christ’s charge to ‘heal the sick’ by caring for those who are ill and accompanying them in their time of suffering through prayers of intercession,” Robert G. Krebs, the communications director for the diocese, said in a statement.

“The Church believes in the life-giving presence of Christ, the physician of souls and bodies, and wishes the former president a rapid return to health,” he said.

On Monday, Biden posted a message on X that included a picture of himself with his wife, former first lady Jill Biden, thanking the public for their support.

“Cancer touches us all,” Biden said on X. “Like so many of you, Jill and I have learned that we are strongest in the broken places. Thank you for lifting us up with love and support.”

Politicians offer prayers, best wishes

President Donald Trump, who ran against Biden twice, expressed sadness about the news in a post on his social media platform Truth Social.

“Melania and I are saddened to hear about Joe Biden’s recent medical diagnosis,” Trump wrote. “We extend our warmest and best wishes to Jill and the family, and we wish Joe a fast and successful recovery.”

Vice President JD Vance, the second Catholic vice president after Biden, told reporters that “we wish the best for the former president’s health” but also expressed concerns that he believes the prior administration did not provide “accurate information about what he was actually dealing with” during his presidency.

Former vice president Kamala Harris, who served under Biden, said in a post on X that she and her husband, Doug, are keeping Biden “and their entire family in our hearts and prayers during this time.” 

“Joe is a fighter — and I know he will face this challenge with the same strength, resilience, and optimism that have always defined his life and leadership,” she said. “We are hopeful for a full and speedy recovery.”

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the former speaker of the House and a fellow Catholic, said she and her husband, Paul, “join millions across the country and around the world praying for him to have strength and a swift recovery in the battle against cancer” in a post on X.

Current House Speaker Mike Johnson also said on X that he and his family “will be joining the countless others who are praying for the former president in the wake of his diagnosis.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on X that he is “praying for President Biden and the entire Biden family,” and Senate Majority Leader Thom Tillis said he and his wife, Susan, “are saddened to hear about President Biden’s prostate cancer diagnosis and are praying for his full recovery.”

Part of Centennial Christian Church in St. Louis collapsed on Friday, May 16, 2025, when severe storms, including a possible tornado, swept through the city. / Credit: AP Photo/Michael Phillis

St. Louis, Mo., May 19, 2025 / 16:07 pm (CNA).

A mile-wide tornado tore through the northern part of St. Louis on Friday, causing over $1.6 billion in damage and leaving at least five people dead, including a woman who was killed when the steeple of a Christian church collapsed on her. 

A tornado believed to have attained EF-3 intensity touched down just southwest of the St. Louis Forest Park and traveled northeast through the densely populated city for over 20 miles, downing mature trees, ripping off roofs, and leaving collapsed buildings in its wake. 

Much of the destruction — other than damage to the many stately mansions near Forest Park — affected the poorest parts of the city. Among more than 5,000 damaged buildings, at least 12 schools were hit, as was the St. Louis Zoo; tens of thousands of people in the region lost power.  

The twister was part of a massive outbreak sequence on May 16 that also spawned tornadoes in Kentucky, killing at least 19 people in that state and leveling the small town of London, about 80 miles south of Lexington. Several more deaths from tornadoes were also reported in Virginia and in southeastern Missouri.

Patricia Penelton, a longtime volunteer at St. Louis’ Centennial Christian Church — who was reportedly at the church bagging lunches to distribute after the storm — was killed when the bell tower and roof of the 121-year-old church collapsed in the tornado. Penelton was an active member of the church who started an initiative to provide free meals to neighborhood kids and to the homeless. 

“She died in her beloved church, doing what she loved,” her daughter, Alexis Dennard, said in an interview with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Saturday. “She left this Earth in service to others. What better testament to God and her discipleship is there?”

A father of seven and a food truck owner, Juan Baltazar, was also killed when a large tree crushed his truck. Authorities have not publicly named the other casualties.

The Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, located in the hard-hit Central West End, lost power on Friday. St. Matthew the Apostle Parish and St. Josephine Bakhita Parish are also located near the tornado’s path.

Archdiocesan spokeswoman Lisa Shea told CNA that damage is still being assessed. Pastors have been asked to hold a second collection at Masses next weekend, with the collected funds going to Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of St. Louis (CCSTL). 

CCSTL is currently accepting donations to help more than 750 individuals and families who have reached out through the Catholic Charities website seeking support. Catholic Charities says it is mobilizing emergency resources to provide critical services, including temporary housing, food, counseling, and long-term recovery assistance for those affected.

“We are seeing a heartbreaking level of need, and our ministry is here to respond with urgency and compassion,” said Jared Bryson, president and CEO of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, in a statement. 

“Requests for help are pouring in — and we are doing everything we can to meet each one with dignity, care, and concrete support … This is the mission of Catholic Charities — to be a visible sign of Christ’s love and mercy in moments of great need. We are committed to walking alongside our neighbors as they recover and rebuild.”

The Archdiocese of Chicago will host a celebration at Rate Field, the home of the Chicago White Sox, on June 14, 2025, to honor Pope Leo XIV. / Credit: Enoch Lai at the English-language Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 19, 2025 / 15:04 pm (CNA).

The Archdiocese of Chicago will host a celebration at Rate Field, the home of the Chicago White Sox, on June 14 to honor Pope Leo XIV, according to a statement released by the archdiocese. 

The public is invited to attend the upcoming “once-in-a-lifetime celebration of the election of Pope Leo XIV, the first pope born and raised in the Chicago area.”

“Pope Leo XIV’s message of peace, unity, and the key to a meaningful life have touched hearts across the globe,” the archdiocese said. “This celebration is an extraordinary opportunity for people from the city and beyond to come together in shared pride for one of our own.”

While there was initial speculation as to which Chicago baseball team the new pope is a fan of, Pope Leo XIV’s brother, John Prevost, told local television station WGN that the pontiff was “always a Sox fan.” Subsequently, a 20-year-old video surfaced of then-Father Robert Prevost attending a 2005 World Series game between the White Sox and the Houston Astros.

The program at the White Sox stadium will feature music, film, testimonials, and prayer and will conclude with a Mass. 

The event will “celebrate [Pope Leo’s] election,” said Cardinal Blase Cupich, archbishop of Chicago, who added that all those interested in attending should keep an eye out as “more details will be announced in the coming week.”

Pope Leo XIV meets with faith leaders on Monday, May 19, 2025, at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican Media

Rome Newsroom, May 19, 2025 / 14:04 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV met with faith leaders at the Vatican on Monday, emphasizing his commitment to continue Pope Francis’ legacy on synodality in relation to ecumenical dialogue with other churches and religions.

Inviting representatives of other Christian churches, ecclessial communities, and other religions who attended his Sunday inauguration Mass to the Apostolic Palace for a private audience, the Holy Father stated his desire to continue the Church’s “ecumenical journey and interreligious dialogue” following the legacy of his predecessors St. John XXIII and Pope Francis. 

“Synodality and ecumenism are closely linked,” he said. “I wish to assure you of my intention to continue Pope Francis’ commitment to promoting the synodal character of the Catholic Church and to developing new and concrete forms for an ever more intense synodality in the ecumenical field.”

“Today is the time for dialogue and for building bridges,” he added. “Therefore I am happy and grateful for the presence of the representatives of other religious traditions, who share the search for God and his will, which is always and only the will of love and life for men and women and for all creatures.”

Expressing his particular fraternal affection for the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem, and Assyrian Patriarch Mar Awa III in the meeting, Leo XIV highlighted the need for Christian unity in light of the 1,700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea to be celebrated on May 20.

“That council represents a fundamental stage in the development of the Creed shared by all the Churches and ecclesial communities,” the Holy Father said. “While we are on the path towards the reestablishment of full communion among all Christians, we recognize that this unity can only be unity in faith.” 

“As bishop of Rome, I consider one of my primary duties to seek the reestablishment of full and visible communion among all those who profess the same faith in God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,” he added. 

During the audience, Pope Leo reiterated the importance of a dialogue and fraternity — founded upon the shared belief in one God — with Jews and Muslims in order to achieve peace.

“Even in these difficult times, marked by conflicts and misunderstandings, it is necessary to continue with enthusiasm this very precious dialogue of ours,” he said.

“This approach, based on mutual respect and freedom of conscience, represents a solid basis for building bridges between our communities,” he added.

Toward the end of the audience, the pontiff reiterated his calls for peace and the need for leaders of all faith traditions to be united, “through the testimony of our brotherhood,” for the good of humanity.

“In a world wounded by violence and conflict, each of the communities represented here brings its own contribution of wisdom, compassion, and commitment to the good of humanity and the protection of our common home,” Pope Leo said.

“I am convinced that, if we are in agreement and free from ideological and political conditioning, we can be effective in saying ‘no’ to war and ‘yes’ to peace, ‘no’ to the arms race and ‘yes’ to disarmament, ‘no’ to an economy that impoverishes peoples and the Earth and ‘yes’ to integral development,” the Holy Father concluded.

Pope Leo XIV meets with U.S. Vice President JD Vance on May 19, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media

CNA Staff, May 19, 2025 / 13:01 pm (CNA).

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has confirmed that U.S. President Donald Trump invited Pope Leo XIV to the White House. The invitation was made in a letter from Trump that was hand-delivered to the pope by Vice President JD Vance on Monday.

In a video of the meeting between the vice president and Pope Leo, Vance can be heard saying “I wanted to make sure I gave you that letter,” and in his response Pope Leo can be heard saying “at some point.”

Vance told the pope: “As you can probably imagine, in the United States the people are extremely excited.”

During an exchange of gifts between the two, Vance gave the pope a Chicago Bears jersey with “Pope Leo XIV” emblazoned on the back.

At the meeting’s conclusion, Vance thanked Pope Leo XIV and told him: “We’ll pray for you.”

“Thank you for being here for the celebration,” the pope replied.

When Leo XIV was elected May 8, Trump expressed hearty congratulations, posting on Truth Social: “It is such an honor to realize that he is the first American pope. What excitement, and what a great honor for our country. I look forward to meeting Pope Leo XIV. It will be a very meaningful moment!”

Vance and his wife, Usha, attended the pope’s inaugural Mass on Sunday. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio also attended with his wife, Jeanette.

null / Credit: KieferPix/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 19, 2025 / 10:00 am (CNA).

Catholic Charities in Youngstown, Ohio, will join a new pilot study, Lifting Moms Out of Poverty (LMOP), a program developed by Catholic Charities USA, in a bid to offer aid to mothers with small children.

“The intent of the program from Catholic Charities USA is to evaluate the effectiveness of programs that support young families with kiddos under 3 years of age,” Rick Squier, the executive director of the Catholic Charities serving Portage and Stark counties, told CNA.

“I’m excited that we have the opportunity to do this,” Squier said. “We’re going to be able to quantify the results of the program and say that when we do our financial literacy program with young families over the course of 18 months, they see dramatic increases in their ability to overcome when life happens.” 

“And then we have the opportunity to go out and write grants” based on the successful results, he said.

The pilot program will run for 18 months and will monitor the status of at least 20 families. Each family will take three surveys over the course of the year and a half with the goal of determining improvement in financial literacy, emotional perspective, and parenting skills. 

The agency serving Portage and Stark counties is currently monitoring 38 families and is using a combination of internal funds along with a $75,000 grant from Catholic Charities USA. 

According to Squier, 100% of these funds go toward the direct support of the families in the form of rent and utilities, transportation, education, or other similar core costs. 

Squier said the pilot program will be adapted to existing ones. First Step for Families, which already serves families in Portage and Stark counties, will benefit from the program. 

“What we did is take this program that already exists and add a little bit more client management into it … with our case workers,” he explained. 

“Now, they’re just spending a little bit more time and effort in connecting with the families and really working with them on the financial portion, the parenting portion, and seeing what we can do to alleviate the barriers that exist in their situation to get them ahead and get them to be more resilient.” 

At the end of the pilot program, The Catholic University of America will evaluate the results in order to formulate recommendations to send to Catholic Charities agencies in other dioceses. 

Ultimately, Squier said he hopes the pilot program will “really enable us to see what works best, so that we can provide support … lifting moms out of poverty.”

Archbishop Charles C. Thompson elevates the Eucharist during the Opening Mass at St. John the Evangelist Church in Indianapolis, marking the official launch of the St. Katharine Drexel Route. May 18, 2025. / Credit: Jeffrey Bruno

CNA Newsroom, May 18, 2025 / 18:00 pm (CNA).

The 2025 National Eucharistic Pilgrimage kicked off Sunday, May 18, with an opening Mass in downtown Indianapolis where an estimated 1,000 people, including many young families, joined Archbishop Charles C. Thompson to officially launch this year’s pilgrimage.

“Our faith is not something to be lived just within the walls of the Church. The Mass ends with being sent out,” the archbishop told EWTN News before the Mass began at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church. “The Eucharist is transforming. And it transforms us, and through us it transforms others.” 

The 2025 pilgrimage is a continuation of last year’s four simultaneous Eucharistic pilgrimages, which converged in Indianapolis for the National Eucharistic Congress in July 2024. The pilgrimages are part of the National Eucharistic Revival, a multi-year plan launched by the U.S. bishops to strengthen faith in Jesus Christ and the Eucharist. 

Eight young adult pilgrims called “Perpetual Pilgrims” will accompany the Blessed Sacrament for the 3,300-mile mile trek this year named for St. Katharine Drexel (1858–1955), which will culminate on Corpus Christi Sunday, June 22, in Los Angeles. 

At the opening Mass was Matthew Heidenreich, a 2024 Marian Route pilgrim, who said he wanted to come out and support this year’s pilgrims. “Something like this, a pilgrimage that goes across the country, the Lord just uses that to create powerful, powerful moments that will ultimately bring so many people to him, and to the Church,” he told EWTN News.

The University of Alabama student from Columbus, Ohio, also shared how his life has changed since making last year’s pilgrimage. 

“My relationship and the way that I walk with the Lord has completely changed,” he said. “Just like experiencing that day to day walk with him, and realizing how much he wants to enter into every part of my life, it transforms the way you view every moment, and the way you enter into life. Because you just know the Lord is with you, he’s walking with you, he wants to be there.”

The Drexel route will process through 10 states — including California and Texas — as well as through 20 Catholic dioceses and four Eastern Catholic eparchies. Along the way will be opportunities to encounter Jesus including daily Mass, Eucharistic adoration, Eucharistic processions, witness talks, and fellowship meals with the Perpetual Pilgrims. 

In keeping with the ongoing Jubilee Year of Hope in the Catholic Church, the focus of the Drexel Route is on “hope and healing,” with visits planned not only to churches but also to prisons and nursing homes. 

“[The Eucharistic pilgrimage] is bringing a Christ centered focus to a world that is in desperate need of meaning and purpose and healing,” said Archbishop Thompson. “That’s what this procession is all about — Jesus Christ, the way the truth and the life, being proclaimed, being adored, being worshipped. The one who leads us and unites us.”

Melanie McClanahan, a Rosary Team volunteer, with a resident. / Credit: Mike Jensen

CNA Staff, May 18, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Teresa Rodriguez was working as a hospice nurse, seeing patients at a memory care facility, when she realized that her patients were not being offered any spiritual services. While speaking with a patient and the patient’s husband one day, the idea was proposed of organizing a time to pray the rosary. Rodriguez immediately decided to make that happen.

“That day I talked to the activities director … and she was thrilled. [She was] so excited that we would even consider coming in and praying with the residents,” Rodriguez told CNA in an interview. 

At the time, Rodriguez was leading a Bible study at her parish, Sacred Heart of Mary in Boulder, Colorado. She asked the women in her Bible study if anyone would be willing to volunteer to pray the rosary with patients at a memory care facility. Two of them volunteered to go with her. 

The event was quickly a success. What started as a once-a-week event quickly became twice a week, and then three times. Rodriguez placed bulletin announcements in the surrounding parishes and was able to gather more volunteers. This marked the beginning of what is now known as the Rosary Team, which started in 2019 and today is made up of over 500 volunteers in 18 states.

Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Rosary Team held Zoom rosaries that were broadcast throughout the facilities. Once they began to reopen, Rodriguez reached back out to facilities to see if they could hold in-person rosaries again and, much to her surprise, there was even more excitement about having individuals come in to pray the rosary with the residents. 

Over the years, Rodriguez has had a plethora of moving experiences with residents at the memory care facilities. 

“One that really got to me was I was praying with one resident and she said to me after we were done praying, ‘That’s the first Hail Mary I’ve prayed in 45 years,’” Rodriguez recalled. 

She added that at times they encounter residents who can’t speak or can only say very few words, “then, all of the sudden, we start praying the rosary with them and they say out loud the prayers of the rosary.”

Melanie McClanahan, a Rosary Team volunteer, said her time volunteering with the ministry “has been a miracle in my life and I see how it is a miracle in the lives of others. I have watched people heal, including myself; I have seen family members come together, and I have watched people who weren’t sure about their beliefs grow in their love of Jesus and their devotion to our Blessed Mother.”

When asked why it’s so important to do work like this with the elderly and memory-impaired, Rodriguez said: “The elderly are quiet and we don’t see them a lot — due to their health issues and their mobility — and they can be easily forgotten, especially when they’re in facilities, when they’re not out at our parishes, not in our neighborhoods, or in the grocery stores. They’re such an easy group to forget and we don’t want to forget them.”

“This is a pro-life issue in pro-life ministry, that we need to take care of people from conception to natural death, and this is a part of caring for them and, you know, acknowledging them, and giving them love,” she added.

Rodriguez said she hopes that both volunteers and residents are being impacted by this ministry and that “the faith and love for God grows through the Rosary Team, and through the volunteers and the residents praying together.”

The Blessed Sacrament is held aloft during a Eucharistic procession through Washington, D.C., Saturday, May 17, 2025. / Credit: Tessa Gervasini/CNA

Washington D.C., May 17, 2025 / 17:30 pm (CNA).

The Catholic Information Center (CIC) on Saturday held its third annual Eucharistic procession through Washington, D.C., in which more than 1,000 participants processed through the downtown area with the Blessed Sacrament. 

Father Charles Trullols, the director of the CIC, told CNA the day was “perfect.”

The event kicked off with a Mass at CIC’s chapel. The group of attendees was so large that it could not fit inside the chapel itself, sending people to watch the Mass on a screen outside where they were eventually brought Communion. 

The procession began after Mass and was led by the crossbearer, candle-bearers, religious sisters, and young children who recently received their first holy Communion and who laid rose petals ahead of the Eucharist.

Trullols carried the Blessed Sacrament in the monstrance and held it high for the crowd to witness and follow. A choir, priests, and laypeople followed behind through the downtown area.

As the group walked, attendees said prayers and sang hymns. Some bystanders joined in and others kneeled as the procession passed by.

Gerard McNair-Lewis, a development associate at CIC, noted that the event is held during May, “the month of Mary.” 

“What better way to celebrate Mary than to honor her son’s Eucharistic presence?” he said.

The group processed down K Street. The Eucharist in the procession was “the closest tabernacle to the White House,” McNair-Lewis said. It’s “a great testament that religious things happen in our nation’s capital.”

Throughout the procession the group stopped at different locations to kneel before the Blessed Sacrament and hear the Gospel. At one stop, Monsignor Charles Pope spoke outside the Veterans Affairs office.

Pope praised veterans and the military, pointing out that “many put their lives on the line so that others can live in greater security and freedom.” He said these individuals “imitate Jesus, who lays down his life so we can live eternally.”

Krista Anderson, an attendee from Virgina, told CNA that her husband Michael Simpson was a staff sergeant for the United States Army who was killed in Afghanistan. 

She felt the moment to honor veterans was a message from God.

Craig Carter flew into Washington for a work trip and “happened to see [the procession].” 

A Protestant, Carter said God “wanted me to come to D.C. early just to pray.” He joined the procession, he said, because God “has been working on [his] heart.” 

Lydia Vaccaro, a young attendee from Virgina, told CNA that “adoration has always been super special to me in my Catholic faith. So, it brought me here.”

“It’s a beautiful witness,” attendee Hannah Hermann said.

“I like being in front of processions like this, where you’re out and people see,” Hermann said. “I’ve heard conversion stories from people who witness a procession."

“The procession was beautiful,” Trullols told CNA after the event concluded. “Every year it is getting better.”

“We know how to do it better and it’s growing — the quantity of people, the attention, and also the way we organize the liturgy and the music,” Trullols said.

Young students cheer during an assembly at Bishop O’Connell High School in Arlington, Virginia, Saturday, May 10, 2025. / Credit: EWTN News

CNA Staff, May 17, 2025 / 11:00 am (CNA).

For Catholic students in the United States, the election of Pope Leo XIV as the first American pope on May 8 filled them with excitement and hope.

Or, as one student put it: “Everyone just freaked out.”

Catholic middle school students attending the Diocese of Arlington’s annual BASH event held at Bishop O’Connell Catholic High School shared memories of the day with Roselle Reyes, news correspondent for “EWTN News In Depth.”

Bahkita Karenge, a Catholic school student in the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia, remembered the excitement of finding out during the school day. Students were “screaming,” “jumping and laughing,” and giving hugs.

“It was so beautiful because at that moment, it didn’t really matter which sport you played or which friend group you were in or which trend you were following,” Karenge reflected.

“Everyone was just a young Catholic kid, and everyone was excited that we have a new leader.”

Karenge remembered how “everyone joined in” singing the national anthem together after they found out. 

“America represents a lot of different people coming together, so I think [Pope Leo XIV will] really try to make everyone’s voice across the world feel heard, and I think that’s good as a new pope,” Karenge added.

Hopes for ‘revival’ 

Students shared their hopes for what Pope Leo XIV will bring to the world. 

Arlington Catholic student Benjamin Lee observed that Leo is known “from a lot of places around the world” and said he hopes this will “attract” more people to Catholicism. 

The pope grew up in Chicago and spent about a dozen years as a missionary in Peru and has dual citizenship. 

“I hope that more people will become Catholic through that, knowing that he is the first American pope,” Lee said. 

“He’s also Peruvian,” said Catholic student Alison de River. “I’m Peruvian, too, so it makes me really happy.” 

Another student, Andreas Millradt, said he hopes Pope Leo XIV will bring about a “revival.” 

“I hope Pope Leo XIV will bring a new revival to the U.S. to help everyone come to Jesus, learn who he is and what he can do for us,” Millradt said. 

One Catholic school student, Patrick Aogauer, expressed hope that an American pope will show the universality of the Church. 

“I really hope that his new papacy will expand the Catholic Church and show Americans that, yes, it’s universal,” he said. 

‘A frenzy’

Students recounted how special it was to experience such a historical moment with their classmates. 

Millradt remembered that “everyone just freaked out” when they learned the new pope was Cardinal Robert Prevost from the U.S.  

“Everyone went into a frenzy,” Millradt said. “It was incredible.”

“I feel really proud that we have our first American pope, and that it feels like we’re all united,” Millradt continued.

As they were watching the conclave, Millradt said his classmates discussed how they’ve never had an American pope.

“I feel like it was such a blessing being able to see this, such a historical moment and share it with all my schoolmates,” he added. 

Jennifer Meszaros, a local Catholic who attends Our Lady of the Blue Ridge Parish, reflected on how Pope Leo gives young Catholics a deeper connection to the Vatican. 

“I think it brings the Vatican closer to these kids, gives them something tangible, and they can relate to,” Meszaros said. 

“Chicago, they know that,” she continued. “He plays tennis, they play tennis.”

For her part, Meszaros said she hopes the new pope will bring “youth movement back to the Church, which we desperately need for the future of our Church.” 

Bishop Michael Burbidge of Arlington, Virginia, reflected on the “enthusiasm” from young people reacting to the new announcement. 

“There is a real excitement because it represents that the Lord has spoken to us,” Burbidge said. 

He “gave us a new shepherd,” Burbidge continued. “I think young people are responding well to that.”