Heidi Schlumpf

4 weeks ago | ncronline.org | Heidi Schlumpf |Daniel P. Horan |David Dault |Thomas Reese

Pope Leo XIV waves as he rides the popemobile around St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican May 28, 2025, ahead of his second weekly general audience. (CNS/Lola Gomez) Heidi Schlumpf, Daniel P. Horan, and David Dault gather for a special episode of "The Francis Effect" podcast to look at the first weeks of the papacy of Pope Leo XIV. How do I listen? Click the "play" button at the top of the page to start the show.

1 month ago | ncronline.org | Heidi Schlumpf

Help us raise $300,000 for NCR!We have raised $206,228 from 1,181 supporters. We are 68.7% of the way to our goal! Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso, Texas, gives the 2025 Cardinal Bernardin Common Cause lecture April 22 at Loyola University Chicago.

1 month ago | ncronline.org | James V. Grimaldi |Heidi Schlumpf |Christopher White |Camillo Barone

By James V. Grimaldi, Heidi Schlumpf, Christopher WhiteMay 08, 2025The challenges for the Catholic Church in Chicago, where Robert Prevost grew up, are a microcosm of the gargantuan challenges facing the worldwide Catholic Church that the new Pope Leo XIV must address. May 08, 2025As the bells of St. Peter's Basilica tolled, signaling the election of a new pope, American Catholics gathered in Rome expressed both surprise and hope for the future of the church.

1 month ago | ncronline.org | Catherine M. Odell |Heidi Schlumpf |Brian Fraga |Brian Roewe

Pope Leo XIV, the former Cardinal Robert F. Prevost, waves to the crowds in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican after his election as pope May 8, 2025. The new pope was born in Chicago. (CNS/Vatican Media) Although the choice of the name "Leo" may have taken the world by surprise as the American-born Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost chose his papal name on May 8, church historians familiar with the cardinal's career and the needs of the church were probably not surprised.

1 month ago | ncronline.org | Michael Sean Winters |James V. Grimaldi |Christopher White |Heidi Schlumpf

Newly elected Pope Leo XIV appears at the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican May 8, 2025. (AP/Markus Schreiber) The first American pope! So many people thought holding a U.S. passport was an insuperable barrier to the election of Augustinian Cardinal Robert Prevost as Pope Leo XIV, but the College of Cardinals thought differently.