One new archbishop in the United States says having a pope from Chicago is something to think about, since “Catholicism in Chicago has its own culture that would have been part of the Holy Father’s formation.”

Archbishop Michael McGovern is the prelate who made the observation, and he would know. McGovern was ordained a priest of Chicago in 1994, where he served until 2020, when he became Bishop of Belleville.

McGovern said the Archdiocese of Chicago represented the Church of the home, promoting the family and parish life.

“I thought it was beautiful recently when [Pope Leo] spoke about what it was like serving Mass early in the morning,” the archbishop said, referring to a meeting Pope Leo XIV had in early July, with some 600 children participating in a summer camp at the Vatican. Some of the children were Ukrainian refugees.

“You know, [Leo’s] mother taking him to serve at Mass. He shared that with a group of children that were at a festivity at the Vatican. But he talked from the heart, about what it was like at those early mornings serving Mass,” McGovern recalled. “Closeness to Jesus, closeness with the people,” he said. “So it was, it’s just been an incredible two months since the election of Leo XIV, absolutely,” he told Crux.

McGovern’s appointment to Omaha was one of the last made by Pope Francis to a see in the US. Francis named McGovern the Archbishop of Omaha on March 31, 2025, shortly after Francis left the hospital for what would be the last time.

McGovern took hold of the archdiocese the day before Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost was elected Pope Leo XIV.

Speaking to Crux, McGovern noted another connection to Leo, who served many years as a missionary priest and bishop in Peru. McGovern’s parish in Chicago had a relationship with a parish in Peru.

“I was at an event in Peru, and the Holy Father was [leading the] Diocese of Chiclayo at the time,” McGovern told Crux. Then-Bishop Prevost was appointed to the post in 2014 by Pope Francis. “So,” McGovern recounted, “I met him just to say hello. I mean, he wouldn’t remember me from that, but I remember meeting him.”

Turning to his new Archdiocese of Omaha – the largest city in Nebraska – McGovern said there is a lot to be proud of, calling the laity “very faith-filled, very generous people.”

He said it is a place where there are good things happening in terms of the instruments to help people prepare for marriage.

“We also had things about natural family planning out of Omaha. So, there was a number of things on – not just a local but a national level – that were taking place here,” McGovern said, noting in particular that education is “a strong suit.”

There are sixteen Catholic high schools throughout the archdiocese, according to McGovern, for roughly 240,000 Catholics. “[T]hey’re able to support 16 Catholic high schools across the counties,” the archbishop said. “That says a lot to me about Catholic education and its importance. We also have, I think, over 50 grammar schools, and, you know, people are very invested in Catholic education, and I think that bodes well for the future.”

McGovern also said he has found the vocations situation “very good.”

“We have 22 seminarians for the archdiocese at the college propaedeutic year and theology level,” he said. “If we can ordain two priests a year, that will help us tremendously going forward.”

On June 7 of this year, McGovern ordained three men to the priesthood.

“I think next year it’s going to be one or two, but as long as I think we have three or two new priests a year that will help us in terms of providing priests for pastoral care across the archdiocese,” McGovern said.

“[W]e we’re going to make some new initiatives this year about vocations,” the archbishop also said.

McGovern also spoke about marriage, and about how to prepare couples for the sacrament and accompany couples through married life. He asked how the Church can “enrich their marriages as they’re at the five-year mark, the ten-year mark and going forward?”

“So,” McGovern said, “I have the anniversary Mass in August at the cathedral for couples celebrating marriage anniversaries. And that’s a beautiful vocation that we want to encourage people to grow in so lots of good things going on.”

McGovern also said an important aspect of the Church is to be a role model, especially as the world is encountering new technologies.

“How do we in the Church – with our many different activities, institutions – how do we show making a good use of these developments? And then also, is it an example? And then as a teacher, what are the ethics involved in artificial intelligence and its use,” he said.

The archbishop recalled that when he was in high school, teachers worried about students using Cliff’s Notes, the short reading guide for novels. Now, he said, Artificial Intelligence means students can now download entire reports without even looking at a book.

“So how do we promote an ethical use of these developments so that they don’t lead us in the wrong direction? Like any good thing, good things can often be misused,” McGovern told Crux. “So how do we help people form an ethic of how to use artificial intelligence?”

The archbishop said similar ethical issues are arising in other areas, such as medicine and health care: “How do we keep up with the pace of the availability of new procedures?”

Looking at the state of the United States, McGovern said an important role of the Church is to call people to unity.

“America is still a young country,” he said, noting that the people are still undertaking what is called the “American experiment.”

“What does it mean to form one people out of the many?” Archbishop McGovern asked, “and how do we do that where we can still be proud of our heritage, like where we came from, what motivates us, what we’re hoping for, and yet still be one people grounded in the Lord Jesus and in the gospel?”

Follow Charles Collins on X: @CharlesinRome