Archbishop Weisenburger found out about Pope Leo XIV’s election on Detroit Metro Airport tarmac, expresses joy and shock
DETROIT — Most Catholics will be well aware of where they were when it was announced that Pope Leo XIV was the first American pope.
Detroit Archbishop Edward J. Weisenburger will remember that he was flying Delta. Coach, to be more precise.
“We were taxiing, and I was in coach and squeezed in next to someone next to me, and just as soon as I turned off the airplane setting, my phone began to go, ‘Beep, beep, beep,’ and I went straight to a live feed and I heard the actual words, ‘Habemus papam,’” Archbishop Weisenburger said during a press conference Thursday afternoon at the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament following the news of the election of Chicago-born Cardinal Robert F. Prevost as the 267th pope.
Archbishop Weisenburger will celebrate a Mass of Thanksgiving at the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament on Saturday, May 10, at 5 p.m.
Archbishop Weisenburger, who was returning from Omaha and the installation of Archbishop Michael G. McGovern, confessed it was just his seatbelt that prevented him from standing up and dancing, right there on the plane.
Pope Leo XIV, born Robert Prevost of Chicago, was elected as the 266th successor to St. Peter, the first pope in history to come from the United States.
“I never in my lifetime though there would be an American pope,” Archbishop Weisenburger said. “For a long time the concern was geopolitics, of course, and that certain countries, nations would fear the United States had sort of taken over the papacy of the Catholic Church.”
Archbishop Weisenburger said Pope Leo XIV, an Augustinian bishop who served most of his priesthood in Peru, including as the first bishop of Chiclayo, Peru, would bring his international experience to the papacy and said there should be little concern about his American background.
In 2023, Pope Francis called him to serve as prefect for the Vatican's Dicastery for Bishops, and he was created a cardinal the same year.
“You get the very clear impression that this is a man of incredible talents and a variety of gifts and blessings,” Archbishop Weisenburger said. “Among those are the importance of a social justice message of universal brotherhood. I think he is a man who will continue the wonderful legacy we’ve had with recent popes of standing always with the poor, always with those who are downcast, always with those who are suffering, and reminding us that we have a universal brotherhood and sisterhood.”
Before the recently elected pontiff was ordained a bishop, he was prior general of the Augustinians and had relationships with the bishops where priests of the order were assigned, including in the Diocese of Tucson, Archbishop Weisenburger’s prior episcopal assignment.
“I had (an Augustinian priest) there and my predecessor, Bishop (Gerald F.) Kicanas, who’s temporarily running my former diocese in Tucson, met with (the future Pope Leo XIV) a number of times,” Archbishop Weisenburger said.
Pope Leo XIV’s time as an Augustinian missionary in Peru, including serving at a seminary in Peru and later returning as the first bishop of Chiclayo, gives the new pontiff a rich perspective on what it means to lead a Church on mission.
Archbishop Weisenburger described Pope Leo XIV as a “theological moderate,” who will build on the work of his immediate predecessors.
“I think what we’re going to find with Pope Leo is he’s very much going to be in the image of Christ,” Archbishop Weisenburger said. “Theologically, he seems to be a moderate, and I must admit I love moderates. I find working out of the heart of the Church and avoiding these two extremes that sometimes suck all the air out of the room — moderates, deeply dug into the Church theologically — I like that. I find they are sensible, they are thoughtful, they stand in the footsteps of tradition."
Archbishop Weisenburger also noted that when the new pope spoke from the loggia above St. Peter's Square, “he talked about the poor, the suffering, standing with those in need, immigrants, migrants, all of that.”
“I think socially you’re going to find he’s a man who, again, reminds us we are not simply members of a nation or a state or a region; ours is a universal brotherhood where there is no one who can be excluded.”
As the world gets to know more about Pope Leo XIV, including his Michigan connection — he studied at the now-closed St. Augustine Seminary High School in Holland — Archbishop Weisenburger pointed out there is much to glean from his selection of Leo as his papal name, drawing back to Pope Leo XIII, who reigned as pontiff from 1878 to 1903 and is known as the “Social Pope” and the “Pope of the Workers.”
“If you go back to the most immediate Leo, Leo XIII, his famous theological work, ‘Rerum novarum,’ was all about social justice. It was about brotherhood and unity, and it was about the rights of workers and their dignity,” Archbishop Weisenburger said. “He was also a man who released profound teachings on the rosary. He released two new Marian scapulars for the faithful during his lifetime. So this man, Leo XIII, really encapsulated the Church’s understanding of what we would call social justice — not just charity, which is the rich giving to the poor, of those who have giving to those who have not — but helping people to understand they have rights. They have rights as humans. They have an essential dignity that cannot be compromised, and I think all of that rich understanding is behind our new Pope Leo taking that name.”
The timing of the death of Pope Francis and the election of Pope Leo XIV means that Archbishop Weisenburger will receive his pallium — a white fabric woven from lamb’s wool that signifies his rank as a metropolitan archbishop — from the new pontiff, rather than from the pope who appointed him archbishop of Detroit.
Archbishop Weisenburger said he looks forward to that occasion, which traditionally takes place on June 29, the Solemnity of SS. Peter and Paul, in Rome.
“There was a jealous part of me that was a little disappointed at the death of Pope Francis, even though I rejoiced for the glory that I believe is his, the eternal life, but nevertheless, I’d been hoping to receive (the pallium) from his hands,” Archbishop Weisenburger said. “Yet, I realize there are blessings with every twist and turn of life, and it will be a great blessing to have been sent here by Francis and to have the pallium given to me by Leo.”
After finding out the news of Pope Leo’s election on a Delta flight, Archbishop Weisenburger said passersby at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport stopped to congratulate him and to ask him what the new pontiff's election means for the local Church. The archbishop admitted he hadn’t had too much time to reflect on what it will mean to have an American pope — and one from the Midwest, at that.
“There’s a certain amount of pride we Americans can take in this,” Archbishop Weisenburger said at the end of the press conference. “I believe he went to high school seminary here in Michigan, in Holland, that’s not there anymore. So we can claim him,” the archbishop joked.
“I’m happy for the world, and I’m happy for the people of the Archdiocese of Detroit,” Archbishop Weisenburger added.
Archbishop Weisenburger will celebrate a Mass of Thanksgiving at the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament on Saturday, May 10, at 5 p.m.
