On hearing news of the election of the new Pope, Archbishop Nolan said:

"Habemus Papam … we have a Pope! I share the joy of more than a billion Catholics around the world at the news that we have a new Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV!

When a Pope dies, Catholics feel a real sense of loss; almost a sense of being orphaned. And so the arrival of a new Holy Father is news of great joy for us.

 

"While I do not know the new Pope personally, I know that he was widely regarded as a fine pastor with experience as a missionary priest and as a bishop in Peru and as a cardinal in the Vatican with responsibility for appointing bishops all over the world,and that experience will be of great value in the tasks which await him.

 

"He will not be a carbon copy of Pope Francis or any of his predecessors. He will be a man who brings his own gifts and experience to the Church and to the world and I look forward with a mixture of excitement and gratitude to the months and years ahead as we get to know and love our new Pope."