Our Lady of the Lake Catholic Church has put up the papal colors in celebration of the new pope. (Submitted by Our Lady of the Lake Catholic Church)

Father John Kerns of Our Lady of the Lake Catholic Church in Lake Oswego said he never thought he would see an American pope.

So when he heard that Robert Prevost of Chicago — who was selected as the new pope of the Catholic Church Thursday, May 8 and took the name Leo XIV — was selected through the conclave process, he was excited. And Kerns felt the selection by the College of Cardinals was “remarkable.”

Kerns noted Prevost’s variety of roles, including as the prior general of the Augustinian order and leading the Dicastery of Bishops at the Vatican. He felt that his experience starting out in America and also serving as parish priest and bishop in Peru means Prevost has a global perspective.

“The Background of Pope Leo XIV gives me a strong sense that he gets what day-to-day life is like for my parishioners and me. And his résumé, which took him all over the world, gives me the sense that he gets a day-to-day life of people from a wide variety of nations,” Kerns said via email.

Kerns also found significance in Prevost taking the name of Leo, which he connected with Prevost’s concern for the poor.

“It is usually an homage to the previous pope with that name,” Kerns said. “Pope Leo XIII (+1903) is most famous for his Encyclical ‘Rerum Novarum’ (1891) written toward the beginning of the industrial revolution regarding the rights of labor. But it is also seen as the commencement of the Church’s Catholic Social Doctrine. I interpret that as a nod to his concern for the rights of the poor and the dignity of every human person.”