by Marc and Julie Anderson
mjanderson@theleaven.org
ROME — Topeka native Father Bob Conroy, MIC, had a front row seat for the election of Pope Leo XIV.
Ordained a priest in 1989 for the Missionaries of Charity Fathers, an order started by St. Teresa of Kolkata, Father Conroy returned to Rome in December 2023 to serve as the vicar general of the congregation and the superior of the order’s house of formation in Rome.
And he had a lot to say about the election of a fellow missionary and religious order priest to the role of Supreme Pontiff.
“He was forged in the crucible of suffering among the poor in Peru, and he lived the spirit of St. Augustine as a consecrated religious and superior for many years,” said Father Conroy of Pope Leo XIV. “This is not a career diplomat who has reached the summit of the diplomatic corps.
“Nor is this a pope who has never lived outside of Rome or been in an office his entire priestly life.
“He is a man who has climbed the rocky paths up the side of a mountain for hours and hours, sweating and hungry just to celebrate a Mass of confirmation for some poor indigenous families living on almost unfarmable land in a place where most of us would need bottled oxygen to breathe.”
That doesn’t mean his sole qualifications for the job are his missionary work, however.
“This is also a canon-lawyer pope who knows the teaching of the church and respects the magisterium,” said Father Conroy. “He can see beyond the Via [della] Conciliazione [in Rome] to the Himalayas, Andes and Kilimanjaro. The Lord has chosen a shepherd who smells like the sheep dressed in the white cassock of the vicar of Christ.”
But Father Conroy does think the time the pope has spent in missionary life will be a blessing to the church he leads.
Those blessings, he said, include “a worldview that bridges wealthy nations and developing countries from the inside out, an understanding that the Father’s mercy and love are unconditional and irrespective of color, class, sex and religion” as well as an understanding that he “must be an instrument of forgiveness and peace to all peoples.”
Additionally, the new pontiff will live out his papacy, he said, based upon knowing his life is not more important than his neighbor’s — as well as the fact that God has given him personal gifts and talents to be used for the benefit of others.
“I am very optimistic about the future of the church,” Father Conroy concluded, “with this new pope at the helm.
“I believe that we are in good hands because he seems to be a man of prayer who knows the world and the problems that face us today.”
