A member of a non secular order says the election of Pope Leo XIV could convey People again to church.
With Pope Leo XIV being the primary American pontiff, it might draw extra folks within the U.S. again to church, in keeping with Br. Frank Connor, a member of the Order of Saint Augustine, a mendicant non secular order throughout the Catholic Church.
Pope Leo XIV “being an American, first off, is historic. Then, being from Chicago specifically, I think it appeals to a lot of the people in the Midwest [and] in the middle of the country,” Connor stated. “What’s significant about that for American Catholics is that… we have a pope that really understands us. And it’ll excite interest back in the church. I would suspect more people will start coming to Mass.”
The share of adults who report often attending non secular providers has dropped, with solely 3 in 10 People saying they attend non secular providers each week, in keeping with a 2024 Gallup ballot. Solely 9% reported going virtually each week. About 11% reported attending about as soon as a month, however 56% seldom went, in keeping with the ballot. Simply over 30% by no means attend, the information confirmed.
Comparatively, a median of 42% of U.S. adults attended non secular providers each week or practically each week 20 years in the past. Ten years in the past, that determine slipped to 38%.
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Pope Leo XIV holds an viewers with representatives of the media in Paul VI corridor on the Vatican, Might 12, 2025. (Reuters/Eloisa Lopez / Reuters)
Attendance is not immediately correlated to how a lot a church makes in income, although church buildings primarily generate earnings by way of donations from members and their group.
That “personal connection,” in keeping with Connor, “will really go a long way, especially in this country.”
The pontiff, born Robert Prevost on Sept. 14, 1955, in Chicago, was a suspected front-runner to succeed Pope Francis after his demise. Francis, who suffered from persistent lung illness, died at age 88 in April, in keeping with Cardinal Kevin Ferrell, the Vatican camerlengo.
Pope Leo XIV was first dropped at the Vatican by Francis to function prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops in January 2023, which is without doubt one of the most necessary positions within the Catholic Church because it vets bishop nominations issued globally.
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In August 1981, he gave his solemn vows. The next 12 months he was ordained as a priest.
Newly elected Pope Leo XIV, Cardinal Robert Prevost of the USA seems on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, on the Vatican, Might 8, 2025. (REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane / Reuters)
By 1985 he joined the Augustinian mission in Peru, the place he served as chancellor of the Territorial Prélature of Chulucanas for one 12 months.
Between 1987 and 1988, he returned to the U.S., the place he served as pastor for vocations and director of missions for the Augustinian Province of Chicago, earlier than he returned to Peru for an additional 10 years to go the Augustinian seminary in Trujillo and train Cannon Regulation.
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In 1999, he was again within the U.S. and elected provincial prior of the “Mother of Good Counsel” in Chicago.
Pope Leo XIV would go on to be elected twice as chief of the Augustinian non secular order, a thirteenth century order based by St. Augustine.
He had caught the eye of Francis, who, after changing into pope in 2013, moved Pope Leo XIV again to Peru in 2014 to function the administrator and finally archbishop of Chiclayo.
