With great joy, I join so many others in Catholic higher education — and especially our Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota community — in rejoicing over the election of Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost as Pope Leo XIV.
His election is a moment of profound grace and historical significance. On the evening of May 8, the world turned its eyes to Rome. White smoke rose from the Sistine Chapel, and the ancient words habemus papam rang out — announcing that the Church’s 1.4 billion faithful had a new shepherd. For the first time in two millennia, the See of Peter is entrusted to a pope from the United States.
Born and raised in Chicago, a member and former Superior General of the Augustinian Order, Pope Leo XIV spent two decades as a missionary in Peru, later serving as bishop there before being appointed Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and named a cardinal by Pope Francis. He brings to this sacred office a life marked by humility, prayer, compassion, and fidelity to the universal Church.
His choice of the name Leo signals a profound continuity — drawing inspiration from Leo the Great, the courageous defender of Church unity and truth in the fifth century, and from Leo XIII, the pope of modern Catholic social teaching whose encyclical Rerum Novarum helped shape the Church’s witness in the modern world. In choosing this name, Pope Leo XIV steps into a legacy of strength, wisdom, and pastoral vision — at once timeless and timely.
At Saint Mary’s, grounded in the Lasallian Catholic tradition of faith, service, and community, we give thanks for the gift of our new Holy Father. We promise our fervent prayers that the Holy Spirit will fill him with every grace: wisdom and courage, prudence and zeal, gentleness and strength.
And so without delay, let us join in prayer that his pontificate will be: a radiant witness to the joy of the Gospel; a beacon shining out the beauty of the Church and Her liturgy; and a source of hope with the hands of Christ for a world in need.
Ad multos annos, Pope Leo XIV!
Yours in Christ and the spirit of Saint John Baptist de La Salle,
Very Rev. James P. Burns, IVD, Ph.D.
President
