“I had to ask from the ambo, the pulpit, ‘Do we have a new holy father? What’s his name?’ so I could now say his name in the Eucharistic prayer,” Kreitinger said. “They nodded and someone said ‘Leo,’ so I was able to include Pope Leo in our Eucharistic prayer. I wasn’t able to be glued to the television, but people were filling me in and I was kinda catching it second hand. It’s so interesting.”

Those that were locked in on the live feeds from St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican included the staff and students of Bishop Ryan Catholic School in Minot. President the Rev. Jadyn Nelson said students took in the scene after the word spread that white smoke had been sighted from the chimney. Nelson said the students were filled with elation and joy to have a new pope, and he was quite shocked himself when he learned the successor to St. Peter would be an American.

“It is early, but as I witnessed the election and first words of Cardinal Prevost, now Leo XIV, as the newest successor of Peter, I can tell you that I was stunned. I never thought I would see an American pope, and I didn’t believe that he would be the choice of the cardinals even though his name started to surface a few days before the conclave started,” Nelson said.

Both Kreitinger and Nelson noted Prevost’s background as an Augustinian, and appreciated his choice of papal name due to the legacy of Pope Leo XIII who developed Catholic Social Teaching through the encyclical letter Rerum Novarum.

Jadyn Nelson

“Maybe because of his time as bishop down in Peru, and some of the things he has dealt with as shepherd, maybe he’s realized the dignity of where we’re at in this moment in time. The Holy Spirit works in different ways. I’m happy, and it will be interesting to see if he’ll be able to bring a stability that we don’t really see right now,” Kreitinger said.

Nelson said he joyfully anticipates the direction Pope Leo will take, and he feels the rich tradition he will be drawing from will be a great gift to the Roman Catholic Church.

“I was trying to process what I was seeing when he came to the loggia and began to speak. He looked like Pope Benedict XVI, he quoted Pope Francis, he spoke in Latin, Italian and Spanish, and he took the name Leo XIV. He also called himself a son of St. Augustine, which I find telling because St. Augustine is the most influential father of the church in the West,” Nelson said. “So I believe that he is trying to communicate continuity with both recent and ancient tradition.”