Habemus Papam!! Evil will not prevail...

Today, the bells of St. Peter’s echoed across the Eternal City with a message older than empire, louder than history, and more hopeful than despair: Habemus Papam. With the election of Pope Leo XIV, the Church signals not only a continuity of apostolic tradition, but a turning toward a future anchored in mercy, solidarity, and synodality. In a time when darkness often appears to encroach on the margins of faith and culture, this new pontificate proclaims with fierce gentleness: Evil will not prevail.

Pope Leo XIV appears at the Loggia of St. Peter’s following his election. (photo: TIZIANA FABI / AFP via Getty Images)

As an adopted Chicagoan, my heart beats with pride for the election of fellow Southsider Robert Francis Prevost. Pope Leo XIV brings to the Chair of Peter a soul forged in the crucible of poverty and service. His life among the dispossessed—those wounded by war, those forgotten by wealth, and those exiled from dignity—has shaped a theology not of ivory towers, but of calloused hands and broken bread. In his first words, he cast aside triumphalism and instead issued an invitation to the world’s forgotten: Come, for the Church is your home. This is no mere rhetorical shift; it is a prophetic cry to reorient the Church's mission toward the peripheries, just as Christ walked among lepers and outcasts.

The new Holy Father has also called for a more sinodal Church—not in name only, but in posture. He envisions a community where listening is worship, dialogue is witness, and power is exercised as service. His vision echoes the ancient yet radical notion that authority in the Church does not flow downward like command, but outward like grace. If truly embraced, this spirit of synodality could be the balm our fractious age so desperately needs.

To those who say the Church is irrelevant, or divided beyond repair, Pope Leo XIV answers with action, not anger. He reminds us that the gates of hell shall not prevail—not because we are strong, but because Christ is risen. His message is clear: the Church must stand as a beacon of hope where fear thrives, a shelter of love where hatred festers, and a voice for the voiceless where silence is complicit.

The road ahead will not be easy, but perhaps it was never meant to be. After all, we are a pilgrim people, not a perfect one. With Pope Leo XIV at the helm, the Barque of Peter sets sail again—not away from the storm but into it, bearing the light of Christ into the heart of the world.

Evil will not prevail. Love will.