When the white smoke began drifting from the Sistine Chapel on Thursday, Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s spokesman clued the former speaker in on the news.
“I have never heard her more excited about anything,” Ian Krager later wrote on X.
The famously Catholic Pelosi is one of more than 150 Catholics serving in the 119th Congress, a number that has steadily grown since the mid-20th century to become the largest single denomination among members. Hispanic Catholics account for an increasing share of Catholic members, as the overall number of Hispanic members of Congress has risen.
The fact that the new pope — former Cardinal Robert Prevost of Chicago, now Pope Leo XIV — would be the first American to serve provoked giddiness among Catholics in Congress. He succeeds the late Pope Francis, who died April 21.
