Heidi Schlumpf

Chicago

Senior Correspondent at National Catholic Reporter

Senior Correspondent, National Catholic Reporter; co-host Francis Effect podcast; author of Questing for God, ND Book of Prayer; TIPS: [email protected]

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Articles

Pope Leo XIV | National Catholic Reporter

6 days 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.
Choice of 'Leo' as new pope's name is likely no surprise for some

1 week 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.
Prevost is new pope, an American cardinal committed to the reforms Pope Francis began

1 week 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.
Habemus papam: Chicago-born Cardinal Robert Prevost takes name of Leo XIV

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

Robert Prevost was born on Sept. 14, 1955, in a hospital founded by the Sisters of Mercy on Chicago's South Side. Four years ago, facing bankruptcy, the nuns sold Mercy Hospital to a technology firm. Growing up, Prevost attended St. Mary of the Assumption Parish. The parish became too expensive for the Chicago Archdiocese to maintain in the early 2010s. The parish buildings were closed and put up for sale, and the parish merged with another in 2011.
White smoke, Black pope? Genealogist says Leo XIV has Louisiana African roots

1 week ago | ncronline.org | Nathaniel Tinner |Heidi Schlumpf |Brian Fraga |Brian Roewe

The Catholic Church has a new leader, with the Augustinian Cardinal Robert Prevost elected as Pope Leo XIV, his chosen name as bishop of Rome. He is the first North American pope and, according to a prominent genealogist, a pope with African-Creole ancestry. The understated candidate triumphed on the second day of voting in a count kept under permanent Vatican seal.
HABEMUS PAPAM: Leo XIV is 1st American pope chosen to lead Catholic Church

1 week ago | globalsistersreport.org | Heidi Schlumpf |Christopher White |Brian Roewe

Pope Leo XIV, a Chicago-born Augustinian friar, is the first American pope in the history of the Roman Catholic church. The former Cardinal Robert Prevost, 69, who headed the influential Vatican Dicastery for Bishops, walked out onto the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica to the cheers of thousands of people gathering for the announcement at 7:15 p.m. Rome time today (May 8).
How Pope Francis holds powerful sway over the 2025 cardinal electors

1 week ago | ncronline.org | Natalia Imperatori-Lee |Michael Sean Winters |Brian Roewe |Heidi Schlumpf

When the 133 cardinal electors enter the Sistine Chapel Wednesday (May 7) to select the next leader of the Roman Catholic Church, the influence of Pope Francis will be inside with them — not just in the eight in 10 he named as cardinals, but also in their support for central themes of his 12-year papacy.
Last words of Pope Francis: Thank you to his nurse

3 weeks ago | ncronline.org | Katie Scott |Brian Fraga |Heidi Schlumpf |Camillo Barone

Massimiliano Strappetti, the nurse who is Pope Francis' primary medical caregiver at the Vatican, adjusts a microphone for the pope as he greets a crowd of well-wishers at Rome's Gemelli hospital before returning to the Vatican March 23, 2025. (CNS/Pablo Esparza) Pope Francis' final moments were peaceful, and he managed to give one last farewell to his nurse, Massimiliano Strappetti, before slipping into a coma early April 21, Vatican News reported.
Pope Francis' legacy on women a mixed bag

3 weeks ago | globalsistersreport.org | Heidi Schlumpf

Pope Francis appointed about a dozen women to top roles at the Vatican during his 12-year pontificate, and in the last months of his life seemed to step up that commitment, naming the first woman to lead a major Vatican office and choosing a woman as president of the Vatican City State. He had also previously put a woman in charge of the office overseeing synodality, the process Francis used to increase collaboration in an otherwise top-down institution.
The Francis Effect podcast: Tariffs; creation preaching; 10 years of Laudato Si'

1 month ago | ncronline.org | Heidi Schlumpf |Daniel P. Horan |David Dault

In this episode of "The Francis Effect" podcast, National Catholic Reporter senior correspondent Heidi Schlumpf, columnist Daniel Horan and David Dault discuss the economic, global and social effects of the Trump administration's use of tariffs as a kind of "economic weapon." They also talk about preaching on creation, including how those at the pulpit can speak about the ongoing climate crisis, and why they should.