Q&A: Archbishop McGovern reflects on pallium, his mission under Pope Leo

Archbishop Michael G. McGovern of Omaha spoke with Catholic News Service at the Pontifical North American College in Rome on June 29 after receiving his pallium from Pope Leo XIV. Here is the full transcript of the interview with minor edits for clarity.

Q: So tell us all about today. What it was like to receive your pallium from an American pope?

A: I would say that this morning was a beautiful ecclesial event in terms of the life of the Church, the Church universal and the Church local with all these different local churches with the different bishops.

I think our Holy Father, Pope Leo, that he’s an American, but he’s also a Chicagoan, and that I’m one of the three archbishops today, who are Chicago priests who have now become archbishops this past year, along with Archbishop Grob (Archbishop Jeffrey S. Grob of Milwaukee) and Archbishop Casey (Archbishop Robert G. Casey of Cincinnati).

I think it is, to me, just a sense of the providence of God, that God could lead the life of Robert Prevost in a direction, that God in his wisdom has a sense of direction. And that would bring about that life of service where being an Augustinian, being a canonist, working in Peru as a missionary, becoming a religious superior, and then going back to Peru as a bishop, and then working in Rome and now being elected pope. Just a sense of tracing the work of God in his life, preparing him for this very challenging role as a chief shepherd for the Church.

So I think just receiving the pallium today is just a very beautiful event, a powerful event in some ways, but that sense of just the goodness of God and the sense of God is with each one of us. Each one of those 54 archbishops, myself included, who received the pallium, to realize that Christ is our Shepherd. You know, that it’s not just that we are called to be shepherds of our own people, but remember that Christ the Good Shepherd is leading us, each one of us, and to allow the Lord to lead.

I think that’s an important thing to remember is to really let the Lord lead us as bishops as we strive to serve our people and lead them closer to Christ through our ministry of teaching, preaching, governing, sanctifying.

So again, I think, it was just a very important day, but a sense of appreciation for (Pope Leo’s) own story of a life lived in service of the Lord and how the Lord’s led him in this direction. I think God can do more with us when we say “yes” to God than if we say “no.” And I think the life of Pope Leo is a good example of saying “yes” to God in many different ways, many different ministries across the course of a lifetime.

Archbishop Michael G. McGovern displays his pallium at the Pontifical North American College in Rome after receiving it from Pope Leo XIV during a Mass for the Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul in St. Peter’s Basilica. The pallium is a woolen band worn by metropolitan archbishops to symbolize their authority and unity with the pope. CNS PHOTO/LOLA GOMEZ

Q: Did you know the pope at all with your connection to Chicago? (Archbishop McGovern was born in Chicago and ordained a priest there in 1994, becoming Bishop of Belleville in 2020.)

A: No, I met him once years ago in Peru when he was in Chiclayo. My parish had a sharing parish in Peru, and so we just happened to be at the same event. I don’t think he would remember that about me, but I remember meeting him, because I knew at that time he was a Chicagoan, which, there was actually a number of Augustinians and Jesuits that had ministries in Peru from their Chicago provinces.

Q: The pope has sort of two eyes on the world: he’s an American and he spent so much time in Latin America. What does that mean for evangelization? What kind of message is there?

A: Well, I keep going back to Pope John Paul II and Pope John Paul’s “Ecclesia in America,” that the Church has to think of itself as one America, not North America, Central America, South America. One America, one Lord, one faith, one Baptism.

And in fact, I always go back to Pope John Paul’s preaching in Grant Park in Chicago in 1979 when he talked about “e pluribus unum,” that Latin phrase on our coinage, that “out of many, one,” which also sounds like Paul’s letters in the New Testament.

So I think that with Pope Leo having had experiences in different cultures, different expressions of the shared Catholic faith, that he’s in a unique position to try and build unity and I think to help us to think of ourselves as one Church and, in the case of the Church in the West, one America, not just North, Central and South.

Q: Unity is one of the key themes of his pontificate. How do you feel that you can help him with this mission?

A: I think by being my motto. I was bishop in Belleville in southern Illinois, and now I’m in Omaha. “Vos autem dixi amicos,” Christ in John’s Gospel 15:15, (says), “I have called you friends.” But to say, I’m not just calling you over here to be friends, or you over here to be friends, I have called all of you to be friends.

I approach being a bishop as I’m everybody’s bishop. I’m not just the bishop for some people. So in terms of my own presence, whether that means, OK, one Sunday I’m going to go to the traditional Latin Mass community and I’ll wear my choir robes and I’ll sit on the side. I don’t say the Latin Mass, but I just am there to be present to the people because they’re part of the Church.

Or I go to the Vietnamese community in Omaha, I just had Confirmation with them, celebrated in a church built by Polish immigrants. So there’s that sense of we’re Catholics together, we’re Christians together.

I think that’s an important part: I have to buy into your world before you buy into my world. I think as a bishop, when I do that, I think it speaks to people, and I’m in a unique position to put a new face on the Church as a bishop if I’m willing to get to know what’s interesting to people. What are they concerned about? And when I’m able to do that, I think then I’m able to build unity. But I’m not just the bishop or shepherd for some people over here or these people over here, but I’m everyone’s bishop.

Q: Any final words?

A: I would say, I think this is a very unique day today. It’s been maybe 15 years ago, there were five American archbishops who received the pallium in one day, and we had eight today. So it’s certainly been a time of transition in the life of the Church in the United States. I think this is a good day for us to build unity, just the eight of us here today, all new to our ministries in these different places.

So I think it’s to keep the conversation going, keep praying for one another, keep contact with one another, and build unity among the bishops in the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, to really see ourselves as one Body in Christ working together. So I would just say I’m very excited about that.

I’ve been a bishop five years now, to continue that work of trying to make sure that the bishops have a sense of unity among us and that we’re able then to strengthen the unity of the whole Church, working with Pope Leo.

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