Bishop Niall Coll welcomes 'marvellous' Pope Leo XIV as new Church leader

Bishop Niall Coll, who encountered Pope Leo XIV in Rome in 2023, believes the new pontiff is a “marvellous” choice as the leader of the Catholic Church.

Bishop Coll, the Bishop of Ossory and a native of St Johnston, met the then Cardinal Robert Prevost, who was the Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops in 2023.

Cardinal Prevost led the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on synodality, held in Rome in October 2023, which Bishop Coll attended.

“His old job was leader of the congregation for bishops and that’s the group in the Vatican that appoint Bishops,” Bishop Coll recalled. 

“They organise a conference every year for new bishops so I was there for his first conference and he struck me as a fine man, quiet, a very good listener and a brilliant linguist.

"He’s a real polyglot. He speaks fluently not only in English and Italian, but in Spanish, French and Portuguese and I’m assuming he’ll have some Latin American languages as well, some of the native languages.

"An ability to speak another language and to speak it well is a great window into the diversity of the world. He’ll have a great grasp of the different cultures and different ways of looking at life and I think it is marvellous to have him as pope.”

A native of Chicago, Pope Leo XIV is the first Pope from North American and also the first Augustinian to be elected as Pope.

White smoke billowed from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel on Thursday before Cardinal Protodeacon Dominique Mamberti appeared at the balcony of Saint Peter’s Basilica to proclaim "Habemus Papam” to the world and announcing Cardinal Prevost as Pope Leo XIV. He is the 267th Pope and was chosen on Thursday own the fourth ballot of the conclave held in the Sistine Chapel.

Pevost was something of a surprise choice, perhaps, given that he was only created as a Cardinal by Pope Francis in 2023.

Ordained as a priest in 1982, Prevost spent a long number of years in Peru and he was called to Rome by Pope Francis in 2023. He spent some time studying Canon Law in Rome prior to his ordination. He was appointed as a Bishop in 2014 and was promoted to the rank of Archbishop in January 2023.

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Bishop Coll said: “I thought the fact that he was from the United States would disqualify him, not for religious reasons, but for political reasons in that the cardinals would be afraid that an American pope would be regarded as too partisan and that he might be too aligned to the United States.

“Pope Leo lived for 30 years in Peru and he spent many years in the international world as the leader, the superior general of the Augustinian Order so I think he’s not just an American…I didn’t expect it, but I’m delighted with the outcome of the conclave.”