Rome Center Students Experience Conclave and Francis’ Funeral First-hand

Following the death of Pope Francis, the Vatican began the conclave process to elect the new pope. Some students studying at Loyola’s John Felice Rome Center had an up-close view of the historical experience, which resulted in the election of Pope Leo XIV. 

Francis died April 21 from a stroke which left him in a coma and caused his heart to fail, only hours after blessing a crowd in St. Peter’s Square on Easter Sunday, The Phoenix reported.

Francis was the first Jesuit pope in history, giving him a special connection to Loyola’s values. He was known for his commitment to the poor, progressive thoughts on LGBTQ+ rights within the church and for championing environmentally friendly policies, the Associated Press reported. 

Students were in attendance at Francis’ final papal audience Feb. 5, days before he was hospitalized for bronchitis and double pneumonia. The visit was organized through the university, according to Michael Rogowski, a fourth-year criminal justice and film major who was also an RA at JFRC for the spring semester.

Madeline Kitagawa, a third-year public health major who spent her spring semester at JFRC, said she was one of the students who attended the Feb. 5 papal audience. She said although she didn’t know it would be one of his last public appearances at the time, it was impactful for her to see him in person while she was in Rome. 

Rogowski said he was able to see the pope’s body lying in state and attend his funeral April 26. He said although many people visited to pay their respects when his body was in St. Peter’s Basilica, it didn’t compare to the size of the crowd present at his funeral. 

“The first thing that kind of struck me was that I had never been in a gathering that huge before,” Rogowski said. “I would look behind me and just see an endless sea of people stretching all the way down that road. I think it kind of puts into perspective the sheer scale of the pope’s influence and the religion as a whole.”

Rogowski said seeing how many other people were impacted by the event was a grounding experience for him. 

“The Wednesday prior I had seen him up close and it was definitely strange, but then seeing the closed casket… that was weird because it looked so tiny from where I was at,” Rogowski said. “I was just, like, ‘Wow, so many people for this one person.’”

The JFRC semester ended May 1. Many students had already left campus by the beginning of the conclave May 7. They were in the midst of finals week when Francis died, according to Professor of Roman Catholicism Rebecca Pawloski. 

Robert Prevost, who was the Cardinal-Bishop of Albano and President of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, was chosen to succeed Francis as the 267th pope. Following tradition, Prevost selected a new name for himself upon his election — Leo XIV, the AP reported. 

Originally from the southern Chicago suburb of Dolton, Leo is the first pontiff to hail from the United States in the history of the Catholic church. He also spent extensive time working in Peru, acquiring Peruvian citizenship in 2015, the AP reported. 

“Peru is rejoicing at the election of Pope Leo XIV,” said Italian Prelate of the Catholic Church Paolo Gualtieri in a statement to Vatican News. “He spent the greater part of his life here, gaining profound experience as a missionary, pastor, educator, and bishop.”

Leo began in Peru as a priest and missionary, and then served two terms as provincial superior. He later became Apostolic Administrator and Bishop of the Diocese of Chiclayo, according to Vatican News. 

“He truly gave his heart to Peru,” Gualtieri said in the statement. 

Kitagawa attended the first night of the conclave with a professor who she was getting aperitivos with in the area. She said they ended up waiting around two hours to see the smoke, which was black, signaling a new pope hadn’t been chosen. White smoke is used to signal when a pope has been selected. 

In order to elect the next pope, 133 cardinals were sequestered inside the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City. They continued to hold rounds of voting until they reached a two-thirds majority. 

Pawloski said this conclave involved 133 cardinals — the largest conclave in history compared to the previous fixed number of 120. She shared remarks following the first night of the conclave when black smoke was released multiple hours after it was scheduled to appear. 

“When the black smoke finally appeared, my phone battery had died,” Pawloski wrote in an email to The Phoenix the afternoon of May 8, before Leo was selected. “All the better, as it made me more attentive to the experience in a different way. The ‘fumata nera’ wasn’t surprising, nor was its late arrival. 

After the white smoke is released, the new pope emerges onto the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica to make his first remarks in the role. In Leo’s first blessing, he echoed the sentiments of unity and peace present in Francis’ Easter blessing, according to the Vatican News website. 

“We can still hear the faint yet ever courageous voice of Pope Francis as he blessed Rome, the Pope who blessed Rome, who gave his blessing to the world, the whole world, on the morning of Easter,” Leo said. “Allow me to extend that same blessing: God loves us, God loves you all, and evil will not prevail! All of us are in God’s hands.”

Landon Hulser, a third-year political science and economics major, said part of him wishes the school would have done more to coordinate trips to the events following Francis’ death, but he also knows it was a chaotic time since it was last minute and during finals week. 

Rogowski said as an RA he was responsible for making plans to visit various parts of Rome, and although there were discussions about planning trips to the pope’s funeral, it was difficult to bring them to fruition due to the overlap with finals week. 

Hulser said he was present for both days of the conclave. On the second day of the conclave, when Leo was elected, Hulser said he and his family were staying at an Airbnb just a couple minutes away from the square. 

When the white smoke was first blown, he said his sister was watching it on a livestream on her phone. At that point, he and his family got up and ran through crowded streets to the square to wait for the new pope’s identity to be released. White smoke was still billowing when they arrived. 

“That was the most surreal moment,” Hulser said. “The two-minute walk from our Airbnb to St. Peter’s Square, there were people crying, everybody was on the phone with somebody. There was this one woman and she’s screaming, ‘Bianco, bianco,’ which is white in Italian.”

When it was revealed to the crowd the person selected was an American, Hulser said many people started to leave the square in anger. He said personally, he feels more connected to the pope knowing they have shared experiences growing up in the United States. 

“The fact that this guy grew up in Chicago and this is where we go to school,” Hulser said. “That’s the first time anybody in the United States, anybody in Chicago can ever say that and I think that’s really important, and that’s super, super cool being a Loyola student as well.”

Rogowski was visiting family in Poland on the first day of the conclave. On the second day, he said he read about the news online and was surprised to see they had selected a pope so soon. He said although he wished he could’ve been there in person, he didn’t have time. If the conclave had extended to a third day, he said he had planned to attend. 

Rogowski, who was born and raised in the Chicago area, said he was very excited to learn Leo is from Chicago. He said in the same way his Polish family felt a connection to Pope John Paul II, he feels a connection now to Leo. 

“There’s something about the pope being from your home country or, in our case, your hometown as well, that kind of just makes you feel a little proud,” Rogowski said. “I think it’s kind of funny and an exciting little wrinkle in the whole process that the guy’s probably been to Portillo’s and has an opinion on Cubs versus Sox.”

Hulser said he feels very lucky to have experienced so many historical events when he happened to be in Rome, even though he isn’t Catholic. He said as a Christian, he was supportive of the ideals Francis preached during his time in the papacy. 

“First of all, he’s Jesuit, and second of all, I personally think he was really, really good at his job,” Hulser said. “I agree with the things he did for the Catholic church. I agree with the way he moved the church. I agree with his much more liberal ideology and his much more accepting ideology.”

Hulser said he’s hopeful Leo will continue down a similar path of acceptance. 

“Especially in this time, I mean there’s just, there’s a lot of bad things happening in the world, there’s a lot of war,” Hulser said. “I think the Catholic church is in a really, really good position to be accepting, to promote peace and to support people who need it, and I really think that’s the job of the church and I think that’s exactly where the pope needs to go.”

Rogowski said he liked Francis’ approach to interacting with marginalized communities and hopes to see Leo follow a similar route.  

“He had this very humble and kind of humanistic approach to the papacy that I think really spoke to me,” Rogowski said. “I think his advocacy for those marginalized groups really connected with me, and I think him being a Jesuit and me attending a Jesuit university — there was definitely a connection there.”

Kitagawa said she hopes Leo will continue Francis’ legacy and share similar values, especially in aiding the poor and showing kindness toward migrants.

“Continuing the sentiment of loving everyone, accepting everyone, and sort of what I think Catholicism is all about,” Kitagawa said. “Just trying to help as many people as possible.”

Rogowski will remain in Rome until the end of May and said he hopes to visit Francis’ final resting place in the Basilica of St. Mary before he leaves.