“Peace be with you,” said US Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost on Thursday evening to a stunned crowd in St Peter’s Square as he became the first American Pontiff, taking the name Pope Leo XIV. For the faithful, there is joy and delight and a new Pope is blessed with many great qualities and the legendary Augustinian Fr. Iggy O’Donovan from the Glen of Aherlow studied in Rome alongside the new Pope in 1981. Reacting to the elevation, Fr. O’Donovan said he is a good man. This indeed is the highest accolade from a priest who believes that the Church in its traditional form is all but finished and that one only has to look at the very aged attendance and ageing clergy to reinforce that view. The new Pope was a missionary with over twenty years in Peru and his Pontificate will be well served amongst the poor, the forgotten refugees fleeing across the channel, that’s if they’re not drowned seeking freedom. There is no doubt the Pope is a holy man of God and he will serve the Church in the way of the Gospels and if you think otherwise, you may have to wait another 2,000 years.
