The pastor of St. Denis Parish in Havertown, Pennsylvania, who recently met Pope Leo XIV , shared a little-known Philadelphia connection about the pontiff.
The Rev. Kevin Gallagher said it’s still settling in that American Cardinal Robert Prevost , a man with local ties whom he saw just last week in Rome as part of the funeral celebrations for Pope Francis, is now the world leader of the Catholic church .
“When I was looking at him, I wasn’t necessarily looking at him as the next holy father, the universal pastor of the Catholic Church throughout the world,” Gallagher said. “I was looking at somebody who I knew went to Villanova, somebody who I met in the past, and I did not think he would appear on that balcony today as Pope Leo XIV.”…