Exactly what Pope Leo XIV did upon return to lodgings after becoming pontiff
Pope Leo XIV had been the pontiff for barely two hours when he bent down to bless and sign a little girl's bible when he joked: "What date is it?"
The Irish Mirror can now reveal extraordinary personal details of what happened when the Pope returned to his lodgings on Thursday night. There was laughter among his friends as they confirmed the date for him. There were handshakes, warm embraces, and a few selfies.
Archbishop John Kennedy, from north Dublin, described the joy as the Pope came back to the apartments where he had been living for the past two months. He left them on Wednesday morning to join his fellow voting cardinals as "Father Bob" and returned on Thursday night as Pope Leo XIV.
Kennedy said the Pope met a young girl called Michaela, the daughter of a member of staff, and then went back to his old room for a "good rest" to prepare to tackle his first full day at Papal work. Archbishop Kennedy, a close friend of the new Pope, recalled: "After dinner, as I returned to the office, I noticed that there was a gathering of Police and Swiss guards and some of the officials. "Word had got round that the Pope was actually intending to come back and sleep in the apartment which he has - he only moved in about two months ago. He eventually came about 10.15/10.20pm. He very calmly got out of the car and greeted a lot of people.
"One of the first to approach him was a little child, whose name is Michaela, she is the daughter of a person who works at the archives. She presented her Bible to the Pope asking him to bless it and to inscribe his name, which he did with great care, and I think he wrote her name and then he put a message for her.
"Then he asked: 'What date is it?' And everybody laughed.
"We told him it was the 8th of May and he then put the date on it as well." The scenes on Thursday night echo stories from across the world about the new Pope.
Everyone he has met speaks warmly of the man who loves tennis and is a dedicated supporter of the baseball team, the Chicago White Sox. It also emerged yesterday that some family members had predicted he would be pontiff one day when he was as young as nine.
Kennedy went on to give more details of the Pope's surprise arrival on Thursday evening: "In turn people greeted him, shook hands - people were taking pictures. I then, on behalf of all the people gathered, I welcomed him back to his house. I expressed our gratitude and gave him our good wishes on the occasion of his election and then asked for his blessing, which he very readily and generously imparted.
"He was then escorted upstairs to his apartment. We are not too sure where he is going to live now. The choice is ultimately his. He wasn't really coming back to get his stuff - but to get a good rest after what had been a very long day."
Archbishop Kennedy is the Head of Discipline at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and he reports directly to the Pope. He described the new Pope as "humble and determined - a perfect combination." The official inauguration of the Pope will take place next Saturday.
The Pope spoke yesterday and identified artificial intelligence as one of the most critical matters facing humanity. In his first formal audience, he made clear he would follow in the modernising reforms of Pope Francis to make the Catholic Church inclusive, attentive to the faithful, and a Church that looks out for the "least and rejected."
Citing Francis repeatedly, he told the cardinals who elected him that he was fully committed to the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, the 1960s meetings that changed the church. He identified artificial intelligence as one of the main issues facing humanity, saying it poses challenges to "defending human dignity, justice and labour".
Some more of the Pope's background was revealed last night. When his older brothers were playing outside playing games of 'cops and robbers', their younger sibling would always play the part of a priest. His brother Louis, who lives in Florida, said he would "hand out biscuits as if they were communion wafers."
"We used to tease him all the time, 'You're going to be the Pope one day!' Neighbours said the same thing. Now 60 years later, here we are!"
The Pope grew up in a small brick house in a working class suburb south of Chicago. He was the third son of Millie and Louis Prevost.
Scott Kuzminski, 63, who grew up in the local neighbourhood and attended the Catholic grammar school attached to the church, St Mary's of the Assumption, said: "Millie and Louis were proud members of St Mary's. It was a hardscrabble school. It was predominantly Irish at the time."
His father was a school caretaker and his mother established a library at St Mary's. He said: "They were the kind of people who volunteered for jobs in the church. Leo's mother was a brilliant singer, in church and in theatre productions.
"I was in Fiddler on the Roof, she played Golde. I was in the choir as a villager. The irony of singing the [Jewish] Sabbath prayer with the Pope's mother .... I don't know how that happened."
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Irish Daily Mirror
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Paddy Woods could still recall the moment clearly. He was enjoying a holiday with his wife Phyllis in London for the 1970 Derby at Epsom when he was stopped in his tracks by a newspaper seller. A pleasant stroll after lunch along the River Thames was interrupted with shocking news as he stared in disbelief at the headline on the front page; 'Arkle is dead'! 55 years ago, the greatest and most iconic horse of all-time, Arkle, took his last breath. Severely painful arthritis in his feet had been plaguing him for some time and on May 31, 1970 the agonising decision was made by his owner Anne Duchess of Westminster, his former jockey Pat Taaffe and vet Maxie Cosgrove to put him down. Arkle's magnificent career had ended three and a half years earlier in December, 1966, when he fractured his pedal bone while jumping a fence in a surprise defeat at the King George in Kempton. 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There's no TV footage anywhere but for Woods, who sadly passed away aged 93 in April 2024, the memories were vivid during that 2020 conversation. 'I was there the day he got hurt, not only that I was there for two weeks afterwards too. He was there for six or seven weeks but I couldn't stay any longer. I'd a young family at the time. 'I had gone over with Arkle to the race, myself and Johnny Lumley (Arkle's stable lad). The race had been put off on St Stephen's Day because of frost and we were furious because we thought they could have raced. We definitely would have raced in Ireland. 'Myself and Johnny walked the track afterwards and noticed he'd taken a lump out of the toe bar at the ditch past the stands. The vets said that's what definitely did it. 'They X-rayed him and confirmed the break. I remember Johnny innocently asking them if it would put him out of the Gold Cup in March. I said 'It will put him out of this year's Gold Cup and next year's too.' 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He's still the highest rated steeplechaser of all-time, an awe-inspiring animal so far ahead of the rest that a different handicapping system had to be used when he raced. After several attempts to get him back on the racecourse, Arkle was officially retired in 1968, and had moved back to his owner the Duchess of Westminster's farm at Bryanstown, near Maynooth in Kildare. Pat Taaffe had called in to visit his old partner with his daughter Olive, fussing over him with apples and treats, but noticed all was not well with the 13-year-old when he went to close the stable door. 'I had to move him back a foot and when I did, he almost fell. I realised that it was only courage and pride now keeping him on his feet,' Taaffe poignantly recalled in his book My Life and Arkle's. He immediately called the vet and the Duchess, and a decision was reached that evening. One of Maxie Cosgrove's partners in his Lucan clinic, James Kavanagh, walked to the back of his car and filled the syringe. Arkle would have felt nothing, it could have been a routine injection, and the greatest steeplechaser the racing world has ever known passed away peacefully. Woods still recalls his first experiences with Arkle, adding: 'He just came to be my ride out. I didn't think that much of him at first, he was just another horse. Then one morning I was riding him out on the gallop and I thought, 'He's going to be great.' 'I rode Arkle every day. He was very good at home. 'Mr Dreaper was a brilliant man. He was a genius; no one knows how good he was. He was a great man to work for too.' Woods got to ride Arkle in 1963 at Gowran Park in a hurdle race when the stable jockey Pat Taaffe couldn't do the weight of 10st5lbs. 'I thought I should have ridden him first time out but Pat (Taaffe) was riding Liam McLoughlin's horse Kerforo, and the boss man was fair and gave the ride to Liam. 'The day in Gowran we were running in because Johnny Lumley had a tip or something. I was going in with him and as soon as I set foot in the place the boss man grabbed me and said, 'get your colours on, you're riding Arkle'. 'It was a good race. He was beaten twice before that but was favourite. Going past the stands I was pushing and kicking and thought I had no chance. I thought he was done. He was gone. 'I got serious three out, and gave him a few slaps down the shoulder. I asked for a big one, we took off in fourth and landed in the lead. I never heard another horse until we pulled up.' Arkle was a huge celebrity in the 1960's - the Dreaper's even having to hire a secretary, Mrs Tinsley, to reply to all the fan mail he would receive, some just addressed to 'Arkle, Ireland'. Dominic Behan wrote a song about him and he even appeared on the Late Late Show with Gay Byrne. Visitors to the yard would have been regular but Woods remembers one occasion when two musical superstars of that era, Dickie Rock and Butch Moore, came to see Arkle. "Ah the two of them got up on him all right. It was a funny sight. Dickie wore his winkle pickers. 'I was friends with Butch and I remember being at a show with Roly Daniels some years afterwards and Roly was talking about horses,' recalls Woods. Country singer Daniels had an interest in horses and owned Hazy Dawn, a mare that gave WIllie Mullins his first Cheltenham Festival success in the 1982 National Hunt Chase. Daniels famously celebrated by singing Danny Boy in the winners' enclosure. 'Roly was telling us about his horses and Butch butted in and said: 'What are ya talking about, sure I rode Arkle, didn't I Paddy.' It was very funny.' Woods also remembered a huge security alert one time. 'Mrs Dreaper answered the phone to the British Police warning her that a pair of dopers, masquerading as a couple with the female an attractive blonde, had caught the ferry to Ireland.' 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