By Msgr. Roger Landry, National Catholic Register, June 5, 2025
Monsignor Roger Landry, a priest of the Diocese of Fall River (MA), is National Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies. He can also be heard on EWTN radio’s Conversations with Consequences every weekend.
COMMENTARY: Not since 1808, when Bishop John Carroll was elevated to serve the see of Baltimore, has the Catholic Church in the U.S. had a clear national leader.
The biggest cheer that rises from St. Peter’s Square after the white smoke emanates from the makeshift chimney on the roof of the Sistine Chapel comes after the cardinal protodeacon announces, “Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum: habemus papam” (“I announce to you the great joy: We have a pope”).
Before anyone in the square knows the identity of the new pontiff, Catholics across the globe, and with us many non-Catholics, erupt, indeed, with great joy. We are ready to cheer the new vicar of Christ no matter which cardinal’s name is proclaimed and what new papal moniker he chooses.
On May 8, however, when Cardinal Dominique Mamberti announced the great joy that there was a new successor to St. Peter and to Pope Francis, Catholics from the United States had a cause for even greater jubilation. …
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