ALLENTOWN, Pa. - Bishop Alfred Schlert said he was impressed with the very first words pronounced by new Pope Leo XIV from a Vatican balcony – “Peace be with you.”
“It’s a very tough time in the world but I do think a message of hope is so important,” said Schlert, bishop of the Diocese of Allentown and leader of more than 200,000 Catholics in the Lehigh Valley region. “It’s a message of trying to embrace many different people.
“He came out and had that humble smile. So much of our communication now is visible. I’m very hopeful because he seems to be projecting a hopefulness and, of course, in the days and years ahead we’ll see how that manifests itself.”
Religious leaders and Catholics rejoiced Thursday at the elevation of Cardinal Robert Prevost to pontiff – the first pope from the U.S. and a Villanova University graduate.
In Center Valley, DeSales University President Father Jim Greenfield said he was caught up in the excitement of someone with ties to the area becoming leader of the Catholic Church.
“I’m friends with a lot of Augustinian priests from Villanova,” Greenfield said. “A good friend of mine is a priest at Villanova and we were just kidding around Tuesday saying ‘Is Bob Prevost going to get elected?
“They're probably partying hard down at Villanova right now.”
The new pope is a Chicago native who graduated from the suburban Philadelphia school in 1977.
He’s 69 and most recently served at the Vatican as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishop. In that role, he headed the office that vets bishop nominations from around the world.
Connection to Pope Francis
Pope Francis named him a cardinal in April 2023.
“It seems to me that the cardinal electors very wisely chose him,” said Greenfield, who has led DeSales since 2018. “They knew Pope Francis captivated the world and they needed some continuity. Pope Francis appointed him. They were colleagues and friends. The cardinals wanted to make sure he had continuity, and they got it.”
Schlert noted cardinals in the conclave, which started Wednesday, came to a consensus in a little more than one day.
“There must have been something that congealed around him quickly in the minds of the cardinals,” Schlert said.
“There must have been something that congealed around him quickly in the minds of the cardinals.”Bishop Alfred A. Schlert, Diocese of Allentown
Both Schlert and Greenfield said the name chosen for his papacy, Leo XIV, may also give a nod to what is to come.
“I think the fact that he took Leo XIV – I don’t want to read too much into it too quickly – but Leo XIII was a very intellectual pope but was also a pope of social concerns," Schlert said. "He stood up for the rights of workers and trade unions at a time that was not a good topic to talk about. It was groundbreaking in the church.”
Leo XIII led the church from 1878 until his death in 1903.
“It seems to me he’s clearly an adept administrator,” Greenfield said of the new pontiff. “But he has a love for the poor and that’s exactly where the pope needs to be.
“Leo XIII was the pope that brought Catholic social teaching to the church: that we all have fundamental human rights, that family life is important – all these basic principles. The fact he chooses this name. That means he’s in line with all of that. I think that’s really exciting.”
Worldwide profile
Schlert said the new pope’s work as a missionary in South America and familiarity with different parts of the globe also may have played a role in his elevation.
“He’s a very learned person, humble, but also the fact that he speaks several languages – that’s a very big plus," Schlert said. "And most importantly, the fact he spent so much time in South America and that’s he’s an American at the same time. That gives him a lot of perspective across the world.
"I think he’s a very astute man by all accounts that I’ve read. I think it’s an amazing choice.”
Schlert will celebrate Mass at 8 a.m. Friday at the Cathedral of St. Catharine of Siena in thanksgiving for Pope Leo XIV’s electorate, the diocese said.
The Mass will be livestreamed on the diocese's news website, AD Today, and on the Diocese’s YouTube and Facebook channels.
Schlert included this prayer with a statement he issued shortly after Pope Leo XIV stepped in public as pontiff:
O God, shepherd and ruler of all the faithful,
look favorably on your servant Pope Leo XIV,
whom you have set at the head of your Church as her shepherd;
grant, we pray, that by word and example
he may be of service to those over whom he presides
so that, together with the flock entrusted to his care,
he may come to everlasting life.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
