The election of a Chicago-born cardinal as the first American pope on Thursday astonished Catholics and non-Catholics alike across the United States.
Some felt a burst of patriotic pride that a 2,000-year-old institution had chosen its new leader, Leo XIV, from a country that is about to celebrate its 250th birthday. Others hoped that an American pope might help smooth the rifts between the United States and its allies that have widened under President Trump.
“To have the first American pope is something new and something fresh,” said Alex Freeman, a 33-year-old event planner from Atlanta. Ms. Freeman was raised Baptist but attends Catholic services occasionally at a historically Black Catholic church. “It’s part of a new American narrative.”
Chicagoans, in particular, rejoiced at the news that the first American pope was a native of their city.
The Rev. William Lego, the pastor of St. Turibius Parish in Chicago, knew the new pope when they were young seminarians in Michigan. “I think my classmate just got it,” he said, sounding stunned, from his office. “They picked a good man.”
The Democratic political strategist David Axelrod, who once helped get another long-shot Chicago candidate elected to high office, sounded equally shocked. “Holy smokes!!” he wrote on social media. “An American pope! From Chicago!!”
But outside the pope’s hometown, other Americans said they had never heard of the pope until his name was announced in Latin from the St. Peter’s balcony.
“I didn’t even know there was a cardinal from the U.S. in the running,” said Danielle Charles, a 33-year-old insurance professional in San Antonio.
In a divided country where partisans seize every chance to score political points, Republican and Democratic activists alike quickly tried to parse Pope Leo XIV’s social-media account and other statements to glean where he might stand on the left-right political spectrum.
Some liberals on social media delightedly circulated a February post from the X account of then-Cardinal Prevost that linked to an article critiquing a comment by Vice President JD Vance who had spoken of a hierarchy of love that focused on family, community and citizens of one’s country before turning to the rest of the world. The post read: “JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for others.”
Conservatives, for their part, quickly pulled the pope’s voting records from Illinois appearing to show he was a registered Republican.
In Queens, Rosario Gonzales, a 72-year-old retired accountant and Filipino immigrant, she said she did not have a preference for an American pope, adding that his selection was “who the Lord preferred.”
“It doesn’t matter what nationality the pope is,” she said. “He’s still my pope.”
Despite closely watching the news, she said she didn’t know much about the new pope and had only heard his name for the first time today. Still, her first impression was positive. “He looks the part,” she said with a laugh. “He’s pope-ish.”
Ms. Gonzales said she hoped the new pope will continue Pope Francis’ outreach to non-Catholics and his compassion for children and migrants.
Alessandro Marazzi Sassoon contributed reporting from Atlanta. Susan Beachy contributed research.