Pope Leo XIV: Why I’m Hopeful About Our New Holy Father

Pope Leo XIV has just been elected — and we’re sharing our first reactions. From the moment we saw the white smoke to the moment he stepped onto the balcony, this video captures the awe, uncertainty, and hope we felt as a Catholic family witnessing the announcement of our new Holy Father.

Join us as we reflect on:
👉 The days leading up to the conclave
👉 Watching the cardinals process in with our children
👉 The surprise of hearing Pope Leo XIV’s name for the first time👉 His first appearance and what he wore — and why that matters
👉 Why we’re feeling hopeful about his papacy
👉 Our prayer for unity and truth in the Church

Whether you're excited, unsure, or just curious about the new Pope Leo XIV, this honest and faith-filled reaction is for you.

Transcript

Welcome back we are so happy to have you here today and we are just going to share a little bit about when we heard the news of our new pope yeah our first reaction to Pope Leo XIV still sounds kind of awkward in my mouth i haven't said it enough times but uh we'll give you our first reactions to him and also uh leading up what was going on in our lives you know mhm so um after the death of Pope Francis and the funeral um we started praying that novena um that Cardinal Burke had recommended for in preparation for the conclave and I thought it was just really beautiful the words that he used you know like we were asking the Holy Spirit to help the men um the cardinals to choose the pope during this tumultuous time in the church and uh yeah so we would we started with that yeah and you know without a holy father when his seat is vacant there's kind of this angst within the church because it's a it's not just it's a family and you're you're missing your father and so there's this unknown period of what's going to happen and uh an awkwardness and and that's normal that's normal but it also builds up the excitement for the conclave mhm so the the day that uh the concave began what was happening yeah so it was exciting you know we watched um basically some live footage I think from EWTN or Vatican media i can't remember exactly which one and just of um the all the cardinals processing in and uh just all the ceremonial traditional things that they were doing it was just so beautiful and then watching them take their oaths and uh we actually did watch a video that explained the conclave and it was very very good and we watched it with our children and it created a lot of awe and wonder and excitement um as to what was going to happen and then my favorite part is when they let go and they shut the doors and there's the two Swiss guards on either side um yeah it was just beautiful and we did this as a family and it's a beautiful teaching opportunity because what we see before us is the history of the church being a great the connection to the history of the church jesus Christ instituted instituted a church upon Peter and the apostles and their successors there are before us and the ones that are going to choose the successor of Peter the 267th pope which is the 266th successor of Peter uh so a direct line connection to Jesus Christ himself now what church can say that none like that's that's a big deal back so it's no wonder that the eyes of the world are looking upon this time and all the eyes of of Catholics are looking

yes so oh you want me to carry on yeah you're you're Okay so um as the conclave began you know we were watching patiently for that chimney to start having some smoke coming out of it and all of a sudden that evening I remember seeing the black smoke and I was like calling all the kids come you have to come see this and um but you know clearly we have no pope that's decided yet and I think that was to be expected and then um I remember thinking oh my what if we have a pope in the middle of the night and we miss it because there was going to be a few more votes um through the night because it was morning for Rome but not for us and um I remember bringing my phone into the room because I was like I don't want to miss this and um I knew I was going to have to wake up in the middle of the night to nurse the baby so I would check and no nothing had happened throughout the night and and then part like earlier on in the morning I I think I was nursing the baby and I would caught a little bit of live footage from ETN and they were um they were kind of taking a break from things so I was like "Okay well I guess I'll take a break too." You know they must know yeah they must know that this isn't going to happen anytime soon and then literally like 15 minutes later I get a text from my mom saying there's white smoke so she must have been watching some kind of news feed like on her TV at home and I was like "Oh my I missed it." And yeah sure enough there was the white smoke we're all gathering around the TV except Ken was gone he had to go pick up this um bench at someone's house yeah so thank you for doing that Aaron and uh yeah so he was away so I texted him i'm like "There's white smoke." And I never heard anything back and the reason why is cuz I'm driving you're not supposed to text and drive at least in our country i don't know about yours so I'm following the the rules i'm driving back and then Janelle calls and lets me know that uh there's white smoke and you're like "Oh like clearly he didn't see the text." And um so but he was on his way and I thought that the pope was going to like walk out any minute i just really didn't want you to miss it but the Pope waited for me and so I drove in and I got into our our our living room where we have our TV and we sat around and and it did take a little bit for the pope to come out and that anticipation and that excitement and and I don't know about you but I had a list of cardinals that I thought like these would be great popes you know one of them and so I was excited for these and there was a list that I'm like a little less excited about uh so that's so you're watching this in with this list in your mind what's going to happen and yeah and and then all of the sudden you know I warned the children um the first person that walks out is not the pope and it's uh it was the the priest or the cardinal that was announcing who the new pope was and he didn't say it in English and so that was a bit tricky but then it was the the commentators were like popping up these pictures of who the pope was before we even got to see the pope walk out which I was kind of like "Oh I kind of like seeing him walk out first." And then they were already describing like things about him like he was born in Chicago and you know he's an American and um Yeah so that was interesting and but what what I found so surprising was that we had no idea who he was yeah so when his face coming up there's this moment of I guess what like that's not supposed to happen yeah i was expecting to be either really happy or really disappointed yeah exactly that's exactly what I was expecting exactly and it was just this weird like okay who who is he where's he from he's an American he's from Chicago uh but he lived a lot of time in Peru peru in South America what What does that mean m uh and I if you reacted that way I think it's it's normal to have this like uh even now as we're getting to know our holy father a nervousness because well it's like he's your holy father and you don't know him it's like someone marrying into the family right who is this in-law what are they like what's their personality uh you want to get to know them yeah except he's the father so you really want to have a good father yeah and uh so it's a big deal and so you're kind of nervous and he comes forward onto that balcony and he's standing there um what was your first thought i thought it was beautiful you know it was just like like I'm thinking from his perspective like could you imagine you know what must be going on in him and and really like the graces that he would have received when he accepted the role and and the the papacy the papacy would have been so profound and then you know they go into the room of tears and he has to put on the outfit of the pope and then he steps out and he sees his people man that'd be so moving so my first reaction when he first came out besides being like who is this person what was uh what he looked like and sometimes we think well you're shallow you judge a person first upon what they look like yeah well that's all you got to go with you see him mhm and what I saw was a young man a young pulp you know he wasn't in his 80s it was obvious he was young and then he to my eye his skin he looked healthy so then I thought my first thought he's going to be with us a long time assuming that he he doesn't get sick unexpectedly or just you know he just looks young he looks healthy probably will be with us a long time uh the next thing that caught my attention was what he was wearing he was wearing that red mosetta and he was wearing a golden pectoral pectoral cross i know I'm sure someone's going to correct me out there cuz you guys are really good at correcting me but that cross that was golden my apologies um and then he had this that stole that was embroidered in gold he was wearing what Pope Benedict had wore when he first stepped onto that balcony and he was wearing what John Paul II wore when he stepped onto that balcony uh he in my mind was honoring tradition he didn't break from tradition he was honoring tra tradition and I thought that was beautiful for some reason my mind drifted more to John Paul II because John Paul II was a a young pope when he stepped onto that balcony and it just brought me to my mind pictures and then uh his emotion he didn't just blankly stare at the sea of crowds before him but there was a moment where you could tell like it seemed like he was moved it was like he was like swallowing a lump in his throat like you know either that or he had a cold i know we'll find out one day i don't think he had a cold he didn't sound that way um so there's just a human part of looking at your father and he's moved because now he's your father so I I thought that was really beautiful mhm something else uh that caught my attention to note was uh the prayer to our lady oh he must have a a devotion to our lady he he goes to her in in as part of that opening address and that opening address or prayer I'm not sure what you call it but you know when he read that's the thing he read it wasn't off the cuff so I thought well that's also interesting now I'm I'm sharing all of this without a lot of knowledge of what other people have commented on i This is just my first reaction even now almost a week has gone by i still haven't read a lot or watched a lot of videos i've been busy with other things but this is my first raw honest reaction i did read that he uh is a canon lawyer and so that fills me with a lot of hope because lawyers are precise with their language and I think this is what we need within the church precise language precise teaching clear charitable pointing to the truth not language that is open-ended for a variety of interpretations and so this fills me with great hope that he's a canon lawyer because I think he will bring this um into his papacy now maybe I'm wrong but that's just that's just my guess he's a canon lawyer for a reason so when I look at Pope Leo XIV I'm hopeful for clear precise teaching I'm hopeful that he will be honoring the tradition because he's stepped forward onto that balcony already doing that um I'm hopeful that he will bring a unity to the to the church because honestly the the church is has been quite divided um and it's painful in a family when a family is divided it's painful within the family the faith family of the church when there's a lot of division now I think we also I'm trying to be realistic there some of these divides are quite deep they're quite painful but I'm still hopeful and I'm hopeful for the grace of God working in Pope Leo XIV I think there are some I know I'm I'm already aware of some in the YouTube circles or the blogosphere that are already trying to poke holes in our Holy Father's history and and I can't I my thought is can't you just give a guy a chance isn't that what love does love seeks the good in another person love doesn't initially seek all that is wrong let's be gracious when we think about our holy father let's think let's champion him let's pray for him let's believe and assume the good for him and that he is acting that he'll act in a great way for the church i mean this is what I this is my position i'm hopeful we're praying for our holy father i know i think the next morning I received um an email from Cardinal Burke i'm on his email list and he said "Let us thank God for our pope Pope Leo XIV." I I felt I felt relieved a little bit knowing that Cardinal Burus is like "Thanking God for our new pope that's that's a good sign you know i'm happy about that." Yeah so exciting time friends to be Catholic it is an exciting time mhm so with that share with us below your first impressions of Pope Leo XIV in the comments i'd love to learn from you as always um share this video if it's been a blessing to you and uh we'll see you very soon have a wonderful day god bless