As newly elected Pope Francis I stepped onto the Vatican balcony to greet the faithful around the world, US Catholics said they were hopeful he would heal the wounds of the recent past and help them reconcile modern American life with traditional church values.
The election ‘marks a great milestone in our church’ and the new pope ‘stands as the figure of unity for all Catholics wherever they reside’, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York and one of the cardinals taking part in the election of the new pope, said in a statement.
The new pontiff is 76 years old, but don't expect him to be feeble, Edward Egan, Archbishop Emeritus of New York, said in an interview with NBC News. Egan described Pope Francis as ‘a man who calmly stands for what's right and just’, and someone with ‘great compassion for the poor’.
US President Barack Obama extended his congratulations to the new pontiff, calling him ‘a champion of the poor and the most vulnerable among us’.
‘As the first pope from the Americas, his selection also speaks to the strength and vitality of a region that is increasingly shaping our world, and alongside millions of Hispanic Americans, those of us in the United States share the joy of this historic day,’ Obama said in a statement.
With an estimated 77 million Catholics in the US, the church has not seen the decline in followers that many European Catholic churches have faced in recent years.
The election ‘marks a great milestone in our church’ and the new pope ‘stands as the figure of unity for all Catholics wherever they reside’, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York and one of the cardinals taking part in the election of the new pope, said in a statement.
The new pontiff is 76 years old, but don't expect him to be feeble, Edward Egan, Archbishop Emeritus of New York, said in an interview with NBC News. Egan described Pope Francis as ‘a man who calmly stands for what's right and just’, and someone with ‘great compassion for the poor’.
US President Barack Obama extended his congratulations to the new pontiff, calling him ‘a champion of the poor and the most vulnerable among us’.
‘As the first pope from the Americas, his selection also speaks to the strength and vitality of a region that is increasingly shaping our world, and alongside millions of Hispanic Americans, those of us in the United States share the joy of this historic day,’ Obama said in a statement.
With an estimated 77 million Catholics in the US, the church has not seen the decline in followers that many European Catholic churches have faced in recent years.