Baala Shakya, Staff Photographer

With the recent death of Pope Francis, the papal conclave took 33 hours to select Cardinal Robert Prevost, who will be known as Pope Leo XIV, to lead the papacy.

Stephen McNulty ’25, who is involved with Catholic life at Yale, wrote to the News that it is “so strange” to have an American pope. 

“To hear the pope of all people speaking perfect English in a Midwestern accent will take some real time to get used to. I’ll be able to understand Pope Leo without being filtered through translation — that is, with a type of direct understanding that English-speakers never had,” McNulty wrote to the News.

McNulty stands as one of many Yale community members shocked at the choice of an American pope. Others reflected on their hopes for the new pope’s stances on inclusivity in the church. 

Carlos Eire, a history and religious studies professor at Yale, wrote to the News that he was further stunned by the speed at which Leo XIV was chosen. 

“I also laughed out loud simultaneously, for the possibility of an American being elected had been preventively ruled out by all the so-called ‘experts,’” wrote Eire.

Eire suggested that one of the reasons Pope Leo was chosen is that he is not a “full-blown American.” Despite being born in Chicago and graduating from Villanova University, Pope Leo is a Peruvian citizen who spent over two decades in Peru as a missionary and as a bishop. 

Eire also emphasized Pope Leo’s multilingual capabilities as a potential reason for his selection. Pope Leo is fluent in some of the most widely spoken languages in the Catholic world: Spanish, English and Italian. 

Both Eire and McNulty discussed the various implications that the election of Pope Leo will have on the world political order. While Pope Francis left behind a progressive political legacy, such as permitting priests to bless gay couples, Leo’s stance on political topics remains to be seen. 

“I hope and pray that Francis’s efforts to build a more inclusive Church — with doors open to everyone — will be picked up and developed concretely, not just with pastoral gestures of warmness, but with tangible action to build a Church that can better serve those who it has too often left on the margins,” McNulty who leads the LGBTQ ministry at St. Thomas More, Yale’s center for Catholic students, said.

Eire stated that Leo has a “clear record of displeasing folks” who lie on the left of the political spectrum regarding issues like abortion and same-sex unions. He theorized that this might be due to “cognitive dissonance” that some American liberals have about Catholic consistency on respect for life.

Though Leo criticized Vance and Trump for their immigration policies before his selection as pope, Eire wrote that “it’s very difficult and risky to make any predictions” about how he will act politically during his papacy.

William Barber II, who is not Catholic but leads the Center for Public Theology and Public Policy at the Divinity School, echoed hopes for the Pope in a recent New York Times article. Barber emphasized the importance of the Pope’s role in the world even beyond the Catholic community.

“We’re in a moment when the moral forces of the world and religious forces of the world have a deep responsibility to say it doesn’t have to be this way,” said Barber.

Beyond hopes for the Pope to be a moral voice in the world, McNulty emphasized his desire to be “challenged” by Pope Leo in the coming years.

“I hope to be challenged by Pope Leo to live in closer service to Christ alongside his Church. I hope he is challenged by the whole People of God, too — after all, to worship a triune God is to worship the God of dialogue,” wrote McNulty.

Pope Leo XIV was elected on May 8.