‘It makes the world feel small’: Loyola Leaders Meet Pope Leo XIV

Loyola President Mark Reed traveled to the Vatican June 25 alongside 19 university presidents representing Jesuit institutions across the country to attend a conference with Pope Leo XIV. 

The conference focused on developing community among Jesuit institutions nationwide. Attendees heard a speech from the pope describing his hopes for the institutions, including a desire for unity and graciousness regarding socioeconomically disadvantaged individuals seeking a Jesuit education. 

Senior Vice President and Assistant to the President, Fr. Thomas Neitzke, S.J., also attended on behalf of Loyola. He gifted the pope a scrapbook curated by the Women and Leadership Archives (WLA), detailing the pope’s mother, Mildred Martinez, and her time at Mundelein College in 1939 and 1940.

The scrapbook was curated in part by Emily Reiher, Director of the WLA.

Many of the photos featured had likely never before been seen before by the pope or by anyone else.

“I think the Jesuit mission shows a global impact in being people for others,” Reiher said. “That’s so intrinsic to the mission here at Loyola -– this is just further evidence of that. This truly was a team effort.”

Included in the scrapbook are images of Martinez partaking in Mundelein’s Glee Club. Clippings from her works in The Skyscraper, the college’s newspaper, are featured.

“I think [the conference] shows how President Reed is working closely with the pope, who I consider to be very progressive,” Christian Life Community Captain Sarah Lohmeier said. “He seems to have his values in order in terms of embodying the person of Jesus, and what he would want people to do in the modern age, so it does reinforce my confidence in our Jesuit values, and our commitment as a university to embody the value of love.”

For Katie Wojda, graduate student and administrative assistant in Loyola’s Theology Department, Reed’s encounter with the pope hit close to home.

“It was cool to see them meet, and it makes the world feel small,” Wojda said. “I’m Catholic, so it’s awesome to see my pope be so close to the president of my school.”

As a member of the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, Wojda said she can connect Reed’s meeting with the pope to her own lived experiences.

“Knowing that our school is participating in meetings on an international level is really important to me,” she said. “I had the chance to attend an International Association of Jesuit Universities meeting in Bogota, Colombia, so I feel the importance of Jesuit institutions being a part of a broader network.”

Wojda said a key aspect of the convention was to discuss ways Jesuit institutions could connect in the future. 

“Jesuit universities all around the world are waking up to this idea that they can be in support of one another in a way now that they couldn’t have been in the past, thanks to technologies such as Zoom, email and other forms of online connection,” Wojda said. 

“Also, the ability for people from Jesuit universities to actually go to each other’s countries to talk and share resources really brings me hope.”

Lohmeier believes that the pope’s meeting draws attention to Loyola’s Catholic outreach.

“I think [the convention] shows that Loyola is having a big outreach in the Catholic community right now, especially because Leo is from Chicago,” Lohmeier said. “I think it also shows our connection to the similar messages that the pope’s been sending recently about caring for the human person.”

For Reiher, the meeting of Reed and the pope brought her pride in a different way. Knowing the WLA played a part in making the pope’s connection with Loyola even more personal is exciting for the department, she said.

“We had these actual photos of the pope holding something that the WLA had created, and it created this really special moment and connection with the materials,” she said. “It was a very interesting project, and I’m thankful for my team for seamlessly getting it all together.”

The pope’s address at the conference explained his desire for unity among Jesuit institutions, by gathering presidents of Jesuit universities and explaining his goals for their bonds, responsibilities and futures.

“I trust that your visit to Rome and to the Vatican will serve to strengthen your bonds both with the Successor of Peter as well as with the leadership of the Society of Jesus,” the pope said in his address to the Jesuit institutions. “I invite you to continue to foster that sense of hope among those in your communities through opportunities for dialogue, service and prayer.”