May 20, 2025 // National

Local Clergy Assist at Pope Leo’s Inauguration Mass

Scott Warden

Editor-In-Chief

Beneath a flawlessly blue Roman sky, with Bernini’s famous colonnade wrapping its ancient arms around the estimated 150,000 people gathered in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Leo XIV – the Church’s first pope from the United States – celebrated an inauguration Mass marking the official beginning of his pontificate on Sunday, May 18.

In his homily, Pope Leo, who was elected on Thursday, May 8, called the Church and the world to reconciliation and communion, urging the faithful to work toward “a united Church, a sign of unity and communion, which becomes a leaven for a reconciled world.”

He continued: “In this our time, we still see too much discord, too many wounds caused by hatred, violence, prejudice, the fear of difference, and an economic paradigm that exploits the Earth’s resources and marginalizes the poorest,” Pope Leo said in his homily. “For our part, we want to be a small leaven of unity, communion, and fraternity within the world,” he told the crowd. “We want to say to the world, with humility and joy: Look to Christ! Come closer to Him! Welcome His word that enlightens and consoles! Listen to His offer of love, and become His one family: ‘In the one Christ, we are one.’”

A version of the quote from St. Augustine is the pope’s episcopal motto and is featured on his coat of arms.

Several members of the clergy from the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend had an up-close view of the inauguration Mass.

‘An Incredible Moment’

Deacon Nicholas Monnin, a seminarian for the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend who is studying at the Pontifical North American College in Rome, was chosen to chant the Gospel reading, in Latin. Deacon Monnin, who was ordained a deacon at St. Peter’s Basilica last fall, has become a regular participant in papal liturgies this spring, as he took part in chanting the Passion in St. Peter’s Square on Good Friday and chanted the Exsultet (Easter Proclamation) at the Easter Vigil in the basilica.

In a national broadcast following the pope’s inauguration Mass, Deacon Monnin told a reporter with NBC News that he wasn’t nervous about singing in front of Pope Leo and those gathered in the square, saying he was “at peace.” However, he told Today’s Catholic that even though he’s experienced massive crowds in and around the Vatican before, the number of people attending Pope Leo’s inauguration Mass was stunning.

“As I stood at the ambo to proclaim the Gospel, I took a moment and looked out, and there are people further than I could see, basically going from the steps of St. Peter’s all the way up the street almost to the [Tiber] river and spreading in every direction,” said Deacon Monnin. “It was for me a visible representation of the universal Church.”

In the coming weeks, Deacon Monnin will return to the diocese from Rome to be ordained a priest. The Mass of ordination to the priesthood for Deacon Monnin and Deacon Andrew Barnes will be held on Saturday, June 7, at St. Matthew Cathedral in South Bend.

After it was announced that he would chant the Gospel for the Mass, Deacon Monnin told Today’s Catholic that he was looking forward to briefly meeting Pope Leo before the Mass – a special custom for those who participate in papal liturgies.

“I greeted him completely in English, ‘Your Holiness, it is very good to meet you.’” Deacon Monnin shared. “I shook his hand and introduced myself, and I told him that I was from the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend. I was surprised when he nodded his head and said, ‘Fort Wayne, yeah’ and smiled. I brought him greetings from all the Americans living in the seminary in Rome, and I asked him to pray for me for my upcoming ordination and to pray for the diocese. He said, ‘I certainly will.’ It was a very normal conversation and an incredible moment.”

‘New Chapter’ in the ‘Life of the Church’

Included among the hundreds of cardinals, bishops, and priests concelebrating the inauguration Mass were three priests of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend: Father Daniel Koehl, pastor of St. Robert Bellarmine Church in North Manchester; Father Dennis Di Benedetto, pastor of St. Rose of Lima Church in Monroeville; and Father Paola Degasperi, pastor of St. John the Baptist Church in Fort Wayne, who is currently living in Rome. Father Koehl and Father Di Benedetto were in Rome leading a pilgrimage with members of their parishes and other faithful of the diocese.

Father Koehl told Today’s Catholic that the pilgrimage and “the experience of celebrating holy Mass with our Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV” was “‘electric,’ if you were to use one word,” Father Koehl said. “Sort of an electric experience, an electric moment. And it’s certainly a great joy to be in the heart of the Church, to be with our Holy Father. It’s exciting to see the Holy Father, who is sort of a very youthful pope, very readily celebrating holy Mass.”

While surrounded by tens of thousands of the faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square – and with the new American pope celebrating Mass, Father Koehl said he and the other priests from the diocese “felt sort of right at home in the square, doing the work of the celebration of holy Mass. There was no sort of strangeness to it.”

“And for me, personally,” Father Koehl said, “it’s always a great joy to go to the Eternal City, to go to Rome, because it’s a place where, like I said, it feels like home, but also it’s a place where you feel the entire universal life of the Church.”

Father Koehl said that throughout his years as a priest, and his time in seminary formation, he has made friends “from all over. And so, I ended up sitting with a handful of priest friends from all different parts of my seminary life, different parts of my priesthood. … And so, we all together sort of celebrated as priestly brothers this great and joyful moment. So, it was not just something I held for myself, but something I was able to share with close friends,” Father Koehl said.

He added that it was “a Holy Spirit-driven moment” that the pilgrimage he was helping to lead would happen to take place at the dawn of a new papacy.

“Our pilgrimage was something that had been planned multiple years in advance,” Father Koehl said. “So, it was not a coincidence. We don’t believe in coincidences. We believe in graces. We believe in divine providence. And this was certainly a providential moment. So, we continue to pray for our Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV.”

Father Di Benedetto told Today’s Catholic that his experience concelebrating Mass with Pope Leo “was very moving and beautiful.” He added: “I think what struck me most was the sense of fraternity among all the priests from the different nations around the world and also for our love for our Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV.”

“I’m so pleased that I was able to be there,” Father Di Benedetto said. “I never thought this would happen, and this trip was being planned two years ago, initially, as a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and then the war began, so we switched it to a Jubilee pilgrimage to Rome. So, for whatever reason, I felt like I was supposed to be there in Rome for this Mass, and it really felt like a sense of the Church welcoming all of us, welcoming all of us to the square, and welcoming all of us to begin this new chapter together in the life of the Church with our first American pope.”

Pope: ‘I Come to You as a Brother’

Ecumenical and interreligious guests and more than 100 government delegations joined the new pope for Mass in St. Peter’s Square. The United States was represented by Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, accompanied by their spouses and senior White House aides.

Vance and the second lady, Usha Vance, visited Pope Francis’ tomb in the Basilica of St. Mary Major the evening before the Mass. “He was beloved by many Catholics around the world, and I hope you will join me in praying for the repose of his soul,” he wrote in a post on X.

Before the Mass began, Pope Leo rode through the square in the popemobile for the first time since his election on May 8, greeting the faithful as cheers of “Viva il papa!” (“Long live the pope!’) poured out from the crowd. He then entered the basilica to pray at the tomb of St. Peter, accompanied by patriarchs of the Eastern Catholic churches.

Following the Gospel reading, three cardinals from the different orders within the College of Cardinals took part in the formal beginning of the Petrine ministry: Italian Cardinal Mario Zenari placed the woolen pallium on the pope’s shoulders, symbolizing his role as shepherd of the universal church; Filipino Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle presented him with the fisherman’s ring, evoking St. Peter’s mission to draw people into Christ’s net; and Congolese Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo offered a prayer invoking the strength of the Holy Spirit for the new pontificate.

Reflecting on the Gospel reading from St. John, chanted by Deacon Monnin, in which Jesus asks St. Peter three times to tend to his sheep, Pope Leo said in his homily that the ministry of Peter is rooted not in authority for its own sake, but in love that serves and unites.

“Peter is thus entrusted with the task of ‘loving more’ and giving his life for the flock,” he said. “The ministry of Peter is distinguished precisely by this self-sacrificing love, because the Church of Rome presides in charity and its true authority is the charity of Christ.”

The successor of St. Peter, he said, “must shepherd the flock without ever yielding to the temptation to be an autocrat, lording it over those entrusted to him.” Instead, “he is called to serve the faith of his brothers and sisters, and to walk alongside them.”

Pope Leo also recalled the period of mourning following the death of Pope Francis, and he said that the conclave that followed the late pope’s death was “a moment of grace.”

“I was chosen, without any merit of my own, and now, with fear and trembling, I come to you as a brother, who desires to be the servant of your faith and your joy, walking with you on the path of God’s love, for he wants us all to be united in one family,” he said.

“With the light and the strength of the Holy Spirit, let us build a Church founded on God’s love, a sign of unity, a missionary Church that opens its arms to the world,” he said, calling for a Church that “proclaims the word, allows itself to be made ‘restless’ by history, and becomes a leaven of harmony for humanity.”

Scott Warden is editor-in-chief of Today’s Catholic. Justin McLellan of Catholic News Service contributed to this report.