Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Friday was the first full day for Pontiff, Pope Leo XIV, as the newly-elected pope, and celebrated by holding his first Mass on Friday with the Cardinals who chose him to lead the 1.4 billion Catholics around the globe.
Many Catholics locally and worldwide were shocked to find out the Conclave of Cardinals had chosen a U.S.-born pope. This included the likes of Fr. Peter Santandreu, Vice Chancellor of the Buffalo Catholic Diocese.
"That is something I never thought I would live to see," said Fr. Santandreu during an appearance with Lucas Buckley on WBEN. "I didn't even really desire it, I think, but here it is. So we have to accept the reality, and what a joyous reality that is."
According to Fr. Santandreu, the tradition of choosing a papal name is to give some kind of a signal of the kind of papacy or the kind of priorities the new pope wants to put forward.
The last Leo, Leo XIII, was pope from the changing of the 19th century into the 20th century. A lot of his priorities were on human dignity, on the defense of the worker, workers rights, and on kind of responding to the transition of the Industrial Revolution.
Fr. Santandreu feels Pope Leo XIV may be on a similar path, when it comes to how he may lead the Catholic Church.
"I think possibly today, hopefully with Leo XIV, he's looking at how to interact with the modern world through a gospel lens, how to bring Christ and the message of human dignity into a world that is in transition again, that has its own things that it is trying to deal with," Fr. Santandreu explained. "I feel like in that mode, but also a mode of deep theological and prayerful reflection on these things not just a reaction, but something that comes out of the tradition and is hopefully informed by what has come before."
What might an American-born pope do for the faith going forward? Fr. Santandreu is curious what kind of an impact it may have locally in Western New York.
"I don't think it's a global problem or even a national problem. It's definitely a regional problem, but what will that do for our region? I'm not sure. It depends on what we'll be seeing because the Pope, he's the leader of the church, he's the face of our universal communion. But nothing here in Buffalo has necessarily changed in our leadership or in our way of doing things," Fr. Santandreu said.
He is hopeful, though, that this election of Pope Leo XIV can attract more people to the faith, to return to church, and to begin to fill pews up once again.
And while Fr. Santandreu hasn't gotten the chance to get many local thoughts from local parishioners, he says the early reviews are of hope and joyful expectation.
"There was a lot of optimism, some cautious optimism, not knowing exactly what he would do given the priorities of the individuals who shared those opinions. But we'll see," he said. "I really do think there's a feeling of hope, there's a feeling of newness. There's a feeling of looking to the future, and it being a bright future."