The Mirror can reveal extraordinary new details of what happened when Pope Leo XIV returned to his lodgings on Thursday night just hours after becoming the first American pontiff
Pope Leo XIV had been the pontiff for barely two hours when he bent down to bless and sign a little girl’s bible when he joked: “what date is it?” The Mirror can now reveal extraordinary personal details of what happened when the Pope returned to his lodgings on Thursday night. There was laughter amongst his friends as they confirmed the date for him. There were handshakes, warm embraces and a few selfies. Archbishop John Kennedy, from north Dublin, described the joy as the Pope came back to the apartments where he had been living for the last two months. He left them on Wednesday morning to join his fellow voting cardinals as “Father Bob” and returned on Thursday night as Pope Leo XIV.
Kennedy said the Pope met a young girl called Michaela, the daughter of a member of staff, and then went back to his old room for a “good rest” to prepare to tackle his first full day at Papal work. Archbishop Kennedy, a close friend of the new Pope, recalled: “After dinner, as I returned to the office, I noticed that there was a gathering of Police and Swiss guards and some of the officials. “Word had got round that the Pope was actually intending to come back and sleep in the apartment which he has – he only moved in about two months ago. He eventually came about 10.15/10.20pm. He very calmly got out of the car and greeted a lot of people.
“One of the first to approach him was a little child, whose name is Michaela, she is the daughter of a person who works at the archives. She presented her bible to the Pope asking him to bless it and to inscribe his name which he did with great care and I think he wrote her name and then he put a message for her.
“Then he asked: ‘what date is it?’ And everybody laughed.
“We told him it was the 8th of May and he then put the date on it as well.” The scenes on Thursday night echo stories from across the world about the new Pope.
Everyone he has met speaks warmly of the man who loves tennis and is a dedicated supporter of the baseball team the Chicago White Sox. It also emerged yesterday that some family members had predicted he would be pontiff one day when he was as young as nine.
Kennedy went on to give more details of the Pope’s surprise arrival on Thursday evening: “In turn people greeted him, shook hands – people were taking pictures. “I then, on behalf of all the people gathered, I welcomed him back to his house. I expressed our gratitude and gave him our good wishes on the occasion of his election and then asked for his blessing which he very readily and generously imparted.
“He was then escorted upstairs to his apartment. We are not too sure where he is going to live now. The choice is ultimately his. “He wasn’t really coming back to get his stuff – but to get a good rest after what had been a very long day.”
Archbishop Kennedy is the Head of Discipline at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and he reports directly to the Pope. He described the new Pope as “humble and determined – a perfect combination.” The official inauguration of the Pope will take place next Saturday and the Duke of Edinburgh will represent the King at the ceremony.
The Pope spoke yesterday and identified artificial intelligence as one of the most critical matters facing humanity. In his first formal audience he made clear he will follow in the modernising reforms of Pope Francis to make the Catholic Church inclusive, attentive to the faithful and a church that looks out for the “least and rejected.”
Citing Francis repeatedly, he told the cardinals who elected him that he was fully committed to the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, the 1960s meetings that changed the church. He identified artificial intelligence as one of the main issues facing humanity, saying it poses challenges to “defending human dignity, justice and labour”.
Some more of the Pope’s background was revealed last night. When his older brothers were playing outside playing games of ‘cops and robbers’, their younger sibling would always play the part of a priest. His brother Louis, who lives in Florida, said he would “hand out biscuits as if they were communion wafers.”
“We used to tease him all the time, ‘You’re going to be the pope one day!’ Neighbours said the same thing. Now sixty years later, here we are!”
The Pope grew up in a small brick house in a working class suburb south of Chicago. He was the third son of Millie and Louis Prevost.
Scott Kuzminski, 63, who grew up in the local neighbourhood and attended the Catholic grammar school attached to the church, St Mary’s of the Assumption, said: “Millie and Louis were proud members of St Mary’s. It was a hardscrabble school. It was predominantly Irish at the time.”
His father was a school caretaker and his mother established a library at St Mary’s. He said: “They were the kind of people who volunteered for jobs in the church. Leo’s mother was a brilliant singer, in church and in theatre productions.
“I was in Fiddler on the Roof, she played Golde. I was in the choir as a villager. The irony of singing the [Jewish] Sabbath prayer with the Pope’s mother …. I don’t know how that happened.”