Representatives of Chicago's Catholic Theological Union headed to Rome for Pope Leo XIV's installation
It still may be hard to believe, but the new pope is from Chicago.
In just a few days, those who consider Pope Leo XIV their own are headed to Rome for his installation ceremony. Six Augustinians from the Catholic Theological Union in Hyde Park, where Leo XIV earned his Master's of Divinity in 1982, are going this Friday.
While they don't expect to meet Pope Leo XIV in person, they will deliver handwritten prayers to his team.
On Tuesday, a prayer was dedicated to Pope Leo XIV inside the Catholic Theological Union.
"We never dreamed that one of our own would now be in the position of leading the whole Catholic Church," said Sr. Barbara Reid, O.P, president of the Catholic Theological Union.
Sr. Reid said nearly a week after Pope Leo XIV was elected, the school is still bursting with pride.
"We always pray for the pope, but now it will have an extra special umph to it when we pray for the pope now," she said.
Sr. Reid will head to Rome this Friday with the six Augustinians for the pope's installation ceremony on Sunday.
"Not much of that joy and overwhelmingness has tempered much in the last couple of days," she said. "I didn't think it would get any more exciting than having the news reach us here, but now that some of us will actually be with him in Rome for the mass of installation is just a real delight."
Augustinian priest Fr. John Lydon will be among those going.
"It's a great opportunity and a blessing for me to be able to be there when he's installed," Lydon said.
Lydon lived with Pope Leo XIV in northern Peru from 1990 to 1999.
"Looking back now, you didn't think you were with a future pope," Lydon said, "but that's how God works."
Pope Leo entered the Order of St. Augustine in 1977. He enrolled at the Catholic Theological Union the following year.
"Pope Leo met the global church here at CTU," said Steve Millies, director of the Bernardin Center at the Catholic Theological Union. "He would have met it in our classrooms. He would have met it with our faculty. He would have met it when the religious communities who are coming together here every day from all over the world."
Sr. Reid and the Augustinians will deliver the handwritten prayer cards.
"I'm not sure if I'll have a chance to hand it to him personally," Reid said. "I think everyone on the planet wants to be with him personally, but if I have the chance to give it to him personally, I'll let him know how deeply loved he is by CTU."
The Catholic Theological Union said it currently has 200 students who represent 40 different countries.
