VATICAN CITY (RNS) — Celebrating the election of the first pope from their country, six of the 10 U.S. cardinals who voted in the conclave that elected Pope Leo XIV gathered Friday (May 9) to express their joy and surprise at a press conference at the Pontifical North American College in Rome, where many of them stayed before the historic conclave began.
“ I always thought it would be impossible to have an American pope in my lifetime,” said Cardinal Robert McElroy, archbishop of Washington.
For McElroy’s predecessor, the retired Cardinal Wilton Gregory, the election was more personal. The Chicagoan Gregory, raised not far from the south Chicago suburb where Leo grew up, said he told the new pope, “From one Southsider of Chicago to another, I promise you my respect, my fidelity, and my love,” his voice breaking a bit at the end.
McElroy and New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan agreed that, despite conventional wisdom that largely dismissed the possibility of a U.S. pope, Leo’s U.S. citizenship was not a big factor in the decision. “ I think the impact of him being an American was almost negligible in the deliberations of the conclave. Surprisingly so,” said McElroy.
Dolan dismissed a narrative that Leo’s election was a response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s growing authoritarianism. “I don’t think at all my brother cardinals would have thought it as a counter …