By Michael Patrick O’Brien–
Instead of tuning into Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube for the last few days, millions (and maybe billions) of world citizens have been squinting at their cell phones trying to detect whether a makeshift metal chimney jutting from a 500-year-old chapel in Rome breathed out white or black smoke.
This May 2025 Vatican conclave, in the era of handheld technology and social media, is one of the most unique and widely watched I’ve ever seen. From my remote Catholic outpost in Latter-day Saint Utah, I have witnessed four others that I remember.
Who could forget the historic “year of three popes” in 1978 when Paul VI died? Joy from the election of Pope John Paul I in August quickly turned into grief when the amiable new pontiff died just 33 days later.
As explained in my 2021 book Monastery Mornings, we asked one of the Utah monks at the old Trappist monastery in Huntsville who might be picked next. He said, “I’m praying for Cardinal Sin.”
My sister Karen and I nodded but then asked each other, “Cardinal Sin? Is he joking with us?” A few days later we realized he meant Cardinal Jaime Sin from The Philippines, and not a major act of human immorality.
When our St. Joseph Catholic High School loudspeaker announced in October 1978 that the next conclave chose Pope John Paul II, the first Polish pope, our English teacher (Miss Dolores Obuszewski) squealed with delight. He survived an assassination attempt, brought down the Iron Curtain, and reigned for a quarter century of my life.
The 2005 conclave brought us another non-Italian pope. My wife and I got to see Pope Benedict XVI in person a few years later at St. Peter’s Square with a traveling group from Salt Lake City’s Judge Memorial Catholic High School.
When Benedict resigned in 2013, the College of Cardinals (and the Holy Spirit) emerged onto the St. Peter’s Basilica main balcony and proclaimed “Habemus papam,” which is Latin for “We have a pope!” They elected Pope Francis I, who had finished second in the 2005 voting.
Pope Francis charmed the world and me, and forever changed my view of what a pope can and should be. I will always miss him.
I’ve visited the historic Sistine Chapel, where the papal conclave unfolds, twice. Both times I was there with family and hundreds of others, and several times the Swiss Guards yelled at us (collectively) to stop talking and taking photos.
Can you really blame us? Those renowned frescoes by Michelangelo are even more impressive in person, so one just can’t help but chatter and click away with excitement.
The cardinals in the just-completed conclave were sealed off from the world, so I could not just email them with my wish list for the next pope. Thus, for the last few days I have been trying to project my prayers and hopes into that sacred space.
I asked them to pick a pope who would continue the good legacy of Pope Francis by working for peace, understanding, and tolerance in both a Church that spans the globe and in that world that it spans.
I prayed they would pick someone who is kind and would, in the words of Matthew 18:21-22, encourage us all to “forgive seventy times seven.” Jesus and Matthew (and Francis) understood that the world always can use more mercy.
And although the exquisite art, luxurious trappings, and undeniable splendor of the Vatican are dazzling, I asked the cardinals to look past all that. I prayed they’d elect someone who would speak truth to power and, to paraphrase the words of Pope Francis, be a shepherd who smells like the sheep.
Sure, we need beautiful churches. Doctrine, dogma, and rules can help too. But we also need pastors who meet us where we are in our messy and imperfect daily lives.
My friend Utah monk Brother Nick Prinster once wrote, “We are all of us broken. We live by mending, and the glue that we are mended with is the grace of God, and what is the grace of God but love?”
So, how did the cardinals do? They surprised us, rather delightfully, by choosing the new Pope Leo XIV.
The former Cardinal Robert Prevost is from Chicago in the United States. But he has many years of experience living and working in other countries, including as a missionary, pastor and bishop in Northern Peru.
He worked closely with Pope Francis. As a papal aide, he helped Francis pick bishops for many other countries.
He has great compassion for the poor and is said to prefer building bridges to building walls. He also gave an affectionate tribute to his friend and predecessor in his first words as pope.
You likely saw it all unfold just like I did, on my phone and through my screens. Maybe you also got a barrage of texts from friends and family with lots of questions and speculation, expressing hopes and fears
There really is no event on Earth like a conclave, both ancient and modern at the same time. The technology and instant communication that today both bless and burden our lives magnified the amazing moment within Bernini’s iconic 17th- century colonnade.
What an opportunity for the new pope.
Ironically, in just a few weeks, Christians will celebrate the Feast of Pentecost, which commemorates the Holy Spirit’s descent upon Jesus’ first followers. The wisdom of the Spirit arrived as tongues of fire.
As white wisps from burned papal ballots dispersed into the skies Thursday around the makeshift chimney jutting from that 500-year-old chapel in Rome, it occurred to me that the world continues to watch and wait.
Me, too. I hope that where there is smoke, there is fire.
(The Salt Lake Tribune published a version of this article on May 8, 2025.)
*Mike O’Brien (author website here) is a writer and attorney living in Salt Lake City, Utah. Paraclete Press published his book Monastery Mornings, about growing up with the monks at the old Trappist monastery in Huntsville, Utah, in August 2021. The League of Utah Writers chose it as the best non-fiction book of 2022.
