‘I was simply stunned by this …’: Bishop Flores ‘deeply moved’ by election of Leo XIV, first American pope

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SAN JUAN — Not long after the world was introduced to Pope Leo XIV, Bishop Daniel E. Flores of the Catholic Diocese of Brownsville held a news conference Thursday afternoon to mark the momentous occasion, one that the world hadn’t experienced before.

“This is an exciting moment in the history of the church,” Brenda Nettles Riojas, a spokeswoman for the Diocese of Brownsville, said as she introduced the bishop. “We all went from watching a chimney as it went from dark smoke to white smoke.”

Standing behind a podium next to a picture of Pope Leo XIV on the Loggia of the Blessings at St. Peter’s Basilica from moments earlier, Flores addressed media members gathered inside the Bishop Adolph Marx Conference Center in San Juan.

Flores said that he had just finished celebrating Mass at a Catholic school in Edinburg when he heard that a new pope had been chosen.

“First of all, I was deeply moved by the moment — a fairly short conclave, and just rejoiced with the whole church that we have a successor to St. Peter, Pope Leo XIV and Cardinal (Robert) Prevost previously,” Flores said. “I was simply stunned by this because it’s such a marvelous gift from God to the Church.

Early Thursday afternoon, 17 days after Pope Francis died on April 21, Leo became the 267th pope and the first pope from the U.S. in the Catholic Church’s 2,000-year history. Leo was chosen on the second day of the conclave.

Born Robert Francis Prevost in Chicago, Illinois, Leo, 69, spent much of his career ministering in Peru.

He was formerly the prior general of the Order of St. Augustine, a religious order dating back to the 13th century. In 2023, Pope Francis appointed Leo as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops. He was then elevated to the College of Cardinals on September 30, 2023.

Flores recalled meeting Leo at the Synod on Synodality in Rome. He described the new pope as someone with a deep love for the poor and a great love for the Church.

“He’s someone who has a deep sense of the missionary heart of Pope Francis, especially amongst the poor at his diocese in Peru,” Flores said. “He also has a deep awareness, obviously, of the situation of the Church in the United States because he’s born in Chicago.”

Speaking after the news conference, Flores said that he was surprised when he learned that Leo was selected to lead the Catholic Church.

“I was just stunned,” he said. “This is a very powerful sign for the Church that we move forward, but we have to move forward together and we have to move forward seeking ways of peace. I just was stunned and very happy. It opens a new life.”

He recalled meeting Leo during the Synod and having the opportunity to talk at length about the Rio Grande Valley and the needs of the people here.

“I had a few times to have conversations with him just about my life and my diocese,” Flores said. “He was interested in what things were like in Brownsville. I would speak about things that I feel very dearly about, like the concern of the Church for the poor and for the forgotten and for the immigrant. And he was very interested in understanding that situation on the border.”

Flores said that Leo brings deep experience of the Church in Latin America, which he hopes will create more unity within the Church.

“I think it gives us an opportunity to kind of recognize how we do live one life, even though very different in the north and in the south,” Flores said. “I think just because he’s familiar with what goes on in the United States, and certainly being from Chicago, I think he will redouble his encouragement for us to be missionary minded.”

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