Cardinal Dew assures Pope Leo XIV of prayers

By CathNews New Zealand

May 13th, 2025

Cardinal John Dew speaks at the Vatican in 2019 (CNS Photo/Vatican Television)

After Pope Leo XIV was elected on May 8, New Zealand Cardinal John Dew spoke with him and assured him of his prayers. Source: NewsTalkZB.

Speaking with the Jack Tame on NewstalkZB on May 10, Cardinal Dew said that he found the conclave to be quite an emotional experience.

“As it became clear that Cardinal Prevost was getting the numbers, it became quite an emotional time – I found it quite an emotional time – when he accepted and then was led out to a room to be dressed in the papal robes. I certainly had a tear in my eye about how emotional the whole thing was,” Cardinal Dew said.

“Then he came back into the Sistine Chapel, we had a little time of prayer together with him, and then we all had the opportunity just to go up and greet him, as we sort of pledge our allegiance and say a few words to him. I said to him that I had the habit of praying every day for Pope Francis and I would continue doing that for him.

“And he thanked me, and I think he knows that he needs the prayers of the world.”

Looking back at the conclave, Cardinal Dew said that he “found it a very amazing thing to be sitting in the Sistine Chapel looking around at the beautiful artwork and architecture and thinking, ‘this is what we are here about’. It was all very calmly done and very organised”.

“ . . . I think we all found it a very privileged moment.”

The cardinal described the new Pope as a “lovely man, and I think will do a very good job as Pope Leo XIV”.

Cardinal Dew observed that then-Cardinal Robert Prevost “was very calm when his name kept coming up [in voting in the conclave], everyone sort of looking at him, and he was just sitting there with a little smile on his face. When he was asked whether he would accept the election, he just stood up and said in Latin that he did accept”.

“From there on, really, he has just been very natural.”

Asked what the world can expect from Pope Leo, Cardinal Dew said while the cardinals were “very clear that we weren’t voting or looking for a copy of Pope Francis, I do believe that he will continue some of Francis’s initiatives which were important for the Church and for the world”.

Pope Leo will come up with his own issues, as Francis did, and put some issues on the world stage . . . “and he might surprise us . . . as Francis did from time to time”, Cardinal Dew said.

Cardinal Dew is staying in Rome to attend the official inauguration of Pope Leo XIV on May 18. He will make arrangements to return to New Zealand after that.

FULL STORY

Mornings with Jack Tame: Cardinal Dew on the new pope (NewstalkZB)