Fairmont Catholic School students enraptured by naming of Pope Leo XIV
FAIRMONT — While students at Fairmont Catholic School entered recess, halfway around the world, white smoke blew out of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican.
The Conclave of Cardinals selected the first American Pope in the Church's 2000 year history on Thursday. The reveal seized Fairmont Catholic's attention, as students watched Pope Leo XIV, Robert Prevost, deliver his first words to the world's Catholics.
'It makes me feel like we're starting to be a bit more included — Americans — in it,' fifth grade student Lily DeMary, 11, said. 'It's been very exciting because of the fact that since it's been like, 2,000 years, it's important for all of us to be included in faith because all of us believe.'
Inside the school, Principal Diane Burnside checked various news outlets for a live feed of St. Peter's Square. As live images of St. Peter's Basilica and the balcony the new pope would eventually step out of, a class of third graders entered the teacher's lounge where Burnside had set up a TV. As Archbishop Diego Ravelli drew up a document Prevost would sign to agree to become bishop of Rome, excitement built up at Fairmont Catholic as students and faculty began to realize what was happening.
A group of third graders clustered around a laptop one of the students brought, tried to name the flags of the country's they saw on the laptop while CNN kept its camera fixed on the Basilica's balcony on the larger TV.
While Pope Francis took roughly 10 minutes to appear before the crowds in Rome after white smoke billowed, Pope Leo took closer to an hour. The third graders tried counting down from 10 several times, only to meet disappointment whenever their count reached zero with no pope to show for it. Burnside tried redirecting their counting into prayer and one sister suggested counting down from 1,000 instead.
'I think they'll be able to tell their kids this story someday where they were at Fairmont Catholic when this American Pope came out and how they felt about it,' Burnside said. 'You could feel the excitement in the whole school. You could hear it from all the classrooms.'
While Prevost made his way to the Room of Tears, Sister D'Souza also turned CNN on for her fifth grade class. DeMary and her fellow students wondered what why Prevost hadn't appeared yet. As with the third graders, Burnside continued providing what context she could, and explained the Vatican had papal vestments of three sizes prepared in the Room of Tears, where Prevost would don his vestments for the first time. The different sizes were to ensure the new pope, regardless of who he was, would have what he needed to wear.
Finally, the doors to the balcony swung open and Cardinal Dominique Mamberti of France emerged. The fifth graders sat raptured to what was happening.
'Annuntio Vobis Gaudium Magnum: Habemus Papam,' Mamberti said through the screen.
We have a pope. Clapping erupted.
'It was really exciting for my students,' fourth grade teacher Shelby McCullough said. 'This was the first time they had seen anything like this. So excited to meet the new pope, especially learning he was from somewhere so close to us here in the United States. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity for all of us.'
McCullough said learning the new Pope was American energized her students. They instantly started discussing among themselves what pope name they would choose for themselves. McCullough said the fact the new Pope spoke English as his main language and was from a place close to home really reiterated the fact that becoming Pope really could be almost anyone's job if they dedicated their life to it.
'A lot of girls were even asking me questions, why can't a girl be Pope,' McCullough said. 'And all of these other things because they're starting to connect to him in a way, even after 15 minutes, because that wasn't exactly how they connected to Pope Francis. We learned more about him as this overarching character. But now, with Pope Leo XIV, they feel a little bit more of a connection.'
In many ways, the naming of a new Pope is a marker on the path of life. DeMary said she hadn't even been born yet when Francis became Pope 12 years ago. In 2013, Burnside had just retired from Marion County Schools and taught at Fairmont State University. One thing led to another and she ended up at Fairmont Catholic, where she became principal.
McCullough watched Francis become Pope when she was teenager. She spent her early 20s searching for purpose. She found it two years ago in Catholicism, and now at 29, teaches at a Catholic school. DeMary said watching Pope Leo ascend as an adult was a full circle moment, the weight of which has fully manifested to her after immersing herself in the culture.
A new Pope introducing himself to the world is just as much about looking ahead than reflecting about the past. DeMary said she hopes she's in college when the time for a new papal conclave comes. McCullough hopes by then to have a family of her own, one she can share her experience of watching the first American Pope greet crowds from Rome with her kids when its time for them to experience their first Papal conclave. It's also Burnside's last year teaching, after having done so for the last 50 years. She retires on June 30.
The fact Pope Leo is from Chicago amazes McCullough. Prevost attended St. Augustine Seminary High School in 1973, meaning he most likely appears in a high school yearbook.
'What an amazing sentence to be able to say, 'my dad was best friends with the pope growing up,'' she said. 'That's something no one in the United States has had the ability to say ever before.'
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