Rev. Robert Sirico told Newsmax on Wednesday that Pope Leo XIV will “accelerate” the revival that’s currently underway in the American Catholic Church.

“I think there already is a kind of renewal going on in the Catholic Church in the United States,” Sirico said on “Newsline.” “We’re seeing more families, more young men coming to the priesthood. I think this will accelerate it, and I think his being American — even though he was the least American of all the cardinals because he spent so many years in Peru — but I think [Pope Leo XIV has] that American sensibility he’s going to bring to the Vatican bureaucracy.”

“There are a whole bunch of problems dealing with finances in the church, so I think that he can bring to bear some American practicality on that,” he added. “His role is to unify, and this man has a capacity to do that.”

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