CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (OSV News) – Many have written fan mail to celebrities and imagined getting a reply. In 2017, an 11-year-old kid was granted his wish to mow the White House lawn after sending a request to President Donald Trump.
When high school senior Selena Mullinax of Chattanooga tried it, writing a letter to Pope Leo XIV, she received quite a reply – with a special rosary blessed by the first American-born pontiff.
Mullinax is an 18-year-old senior at Notre Dame High School and is a parishioner of the Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul. In September, she wrote a letter to Pope Leo but wasn't sure if she'd receive a response.
The letter passed through diocesan levels to the papal nuncio in Washington, and to her surprise, Mullinax received an envelope with a letter from Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the nuncio to the United States – along with a special gift blessed by Pope Leo: a small navy pouch with a rosary inside.
The rosary is made of white beads and includes a pendant showing the Vatican crest on one side and a portrait of Mary holding a young Jesus on the other.
"I still feel like I'm in shock. I couldn't even hold the rosary at first. I prayed for it the next night. It's really beautiful," she said.
What resulted in a gift from the pope started as an idea for a senior prank – a good natured prank – or more a "senior surprise."
Mullinax and her friends discussed how unique it would be if the Holy Father could make a visit to their Chattanooga school. So, they decided Mullinax would write a letter addressed to the pope and send it to Knoxville Bishop Mark Beckman.
The bishop had recently visited Notre Dame, speaking to students and answering their questions.
"He's an incredibly nice person. I think that was so special for the seniors, and it would be awesome if we could see him again," she said. "Getting his approval on this kind of thing (a letter to the pope) feels really special."
Mullinax said that she felt she needed someone to give her a boost of confidence in her faith.
"I was overwhelmed and stressed, and it got better with this," she said. "I went to God and thought 'OK, whatever you want, get a letter back, get nothing back, Pope Leo coming or not – I will be satisfied.' But I think I needed someone to go to and it happened to be the pope."
Bishop Beckman told The East Tennessee Catholic, Knoxville's diocesan news outlet, that he was happily surprised to find that Mullinax received a response. "That is fantastic. I'm glad she was able to do that. It is a great gift and a testament of her faith," he said.
Mullinax recalled the moment she received an envelope at Notre Dame's office. "I never get called to the office, and so when I did, I was confused. I got the envelope and thought, 'Oh they just sent it back, oh, no.'"
To her surprise, when she flipped the envelope over, she saw the package was addressed from the nuncio in Washington.
"I opened it and pulled all this stuff out. It felt kind of cinematic. It was very otherworldly."
While everyone was rooting for Mullinax to receive a reply, many didn't expect it to actually happen.
But "I just knew something in my heart. I knew something would happen," she said, so she kept rehearsing affirmations that she would see good results: "You're going to get something back. You're going to get a response. I am getting a response."
Cardinal Pierre in his letter said that while the pope would not be able to visit Notre Dame, "the prayers that you and your fellow students offer for His Holiness are a real source of strength and a blessing that he carries out in his ministry."
"And then he said something like 'to help you feel the pope's closeness to you, I enclose this photograph. His photograph and a rosary that was blessed by him," Mullinax said.
As she shared the "pope selfie," Mullinax laughed at how she and so many younger people find Pope Leo to be "such an adorable person, and (he) has a sweet looking smile."
When she showed the letter to her older brother, he noticed a filing number on the document. They researched and found that the Vatican archives all the letters and gifts shared with the Holy Father. Mullinax found that exciting: "Oh, my gosh, I'm there, I'm everywhere. I thought it was really cool."
Mullinax said that both of her parents were shocked when she received a response.
"My dad is very stern, and when he was reading it, he was smiling the whole time, and he was just like, 'Wow, my daughter did that.' Then my mom helped me the whole way. She wanted it to be my project, so she didn't really want to have her toes in it, but she helped me a lot."
Mullinax added how grateful she is to be a part of a Catholic family. Her parents were Baptist and became Catholics sometime after their eldest son was born and before adopting Mullinax and her sister.
She thanks God for "putting me into a family that was Catholic because I found my faith very young. I've always had that."
Though she didn't get a direct response from Pope Leo, Mullinax said she wants to continue the line of communication.
"I think I'll send him something for graduation, like how some people send an invite. I'll do something like that," she said.
Mullinax hopes to attend the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga or East Tennessee State University in fall 2026. Though she is caught between the choice of accounting and international business or political science, she is sure of one thing: She wants to do good.
