Father Brian Jordan was walking along the piers of Manhattan’s West Side when he saw on his phone that an American after his own tirelessly faithful heart had become the new pope.
“I was in shock, and other people around me were saying, ‘Oh, we have an American pope! We have an American pope!” Jordan—pastor of St. Francis of Assisi Church, founder of its Immigration Center and its Workers’ Chapel, chaplain to numerous construction workers unions, passionate advocate for cops and firefighters, as well as migrants—later told the Daily Beast. “Like sounds of exultation.”
At least 89 or two-thirds of the 133 ballots cast in the latest round by the cardinals in Rome had been cast for Cardinal Robert Prevost. He is an unwavering champion of social justice who was born outside Chicago and served as a missionary priest and then as a bishop in an impoverished area of Peru.
Pope Francis brought him to Rome to head the Dicastery for Bishops, the body that evaluates current bishops and recommends possible new ones. Prevost became a cardinal only three years ago and employed the knowledge and experience of a working parish priest to the upper echelons of the church. He was unshakably serious, but engagingly warm.
And to make a great choice perfect, Prevost chose the name Pope Leo XIV. Leo XIII of the 19th century had been, in Father Brian Jordan’s words, “the father of Catholic social justice” during the progression from an agrarian society to the industrial revolution.
“He was a pathfinder,” Jordan said. “He was pivotal. He incorporated dignity, ethics, and decency, and the rights of workers.”
Jordan felt sure the new Leo would be “another transition pope.”
“It’s great, isn’t it?” Jordan continued. “I don’t normally get this joyous, you know? I’m Irish, Catholic, and Brooklyn, but I’m ecstatic about the choice that this is. This goes beyond comparison.”
Just when greed and a lust for power seemed ascendant, along came this surprise choice none of the pundits save a rueful Steve Bannon expected. Here was a voice for the primacy of love and the importance of family and the dignity of work, a defender of the poor and human rights and labor rights.
“He came out of nowhere, but he’s gonna take us somewhere,” Jordan said.
“This was the power of the Holy Spirit working overtime.”
Jordan continued on another 15 blocks to his church, where the flags of the NYPD and the FDNY flank the portal. It had once been known as the criminal court of the Catholic Church because so many commuting suburban members of the faith made confession there rather than reveal their sins to the priest in their home parish. But a great many Catholics no longer go to church at all, and the turnout for the early evening Mass at St. Francis is usually held in the smaller, lower church. Jordan figured this day might be different, and a notice went up at the entrances.
THURSDAY MAY 8, 2025
THE 5:30 P.M. MASS WILL BE CELEBRATED IN THE
UPSTAIR CHURCH
IN HONOR THE NEWLY ELECTED
POPE LEO XIV
Nearly 100 parishioners, considerably more than usual, were in the pews when Jordan assumed the altar in his vestments. He raised both his arms in continued exultation.
“We have a new pope!” he announced. “People Leo XIV. Hallelujah!”
Applause erupted from the parishioners. Jordan told them that he had spoken on the phone with two priests who knew the new head of the church.
One, Father John Lydon, had been ordained with the future pope.
“They served together for 10 years in Peru in the parish,” Jordan reported. “And [Lydon] said he was just a very fine man… very perceptive. He could diagnose a problem before it happened.”
The second priest was Father Anthony Wilson, who had worked in Peru for 35 years
“He said, ‘Brian, I know the pope!” Jordan reported. “He knew him as a bishop. He said, ‘He’s a wonderful man!’”
Jordan added, “He said, ‘He’s very fair, very easy to work with. He always took the side of the poor and the working class.’”
Wilson had told Jordan that the faithful sing during Mass in Peru.
“They say if you sing, you pray twice,” Jordan noted.
And the future Pope Leo XIV had sung with them.
“Now we have a singing pope!” Jordan exclaimed.
But, Jordan continued, somehow what now seemed a perfect choice had been a long shot. Jordan said a bookie had told him that Pope Leo XIV had come in at 66 to one.
“[The bookie] said, ‘I lost a lot of money,’” Jordan recounted.
In his time as a priest, Jordan had anointed the dead at ground zero after 9/11, where his mentor, Fire Chaplain Mychal Judge, had been killed. Jordan had also regularly said Mass amid the ruins during the long recovery effort. He dons a hard hat to say an annual Mass for construction workers killed on the job. He has done all he can for immigrants who fled poverty and oppression.
Now, it seemed to him the Holy Spirit had delivered the pope he and everybody else needed. Jordan stepped down from the altar at the end of Mass with a smile and gave a double thumbs up, as the current American president often does.
Only Jordan was joining millions of Catholics around the world in marking a victory of strength through kindness and decency and respect.
