FOND DU LAC, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — Watching Pope Leo XIV’s election was a once-in-a-lifetime moment for a Catholic nun who now lives in Fond du Lac.
Sister Dianne Bergant has studied, prayed and celebrated with Pope Leo himself.
“I was overwhelmed by an emotion I can’t even describe. It didn’t seem real,” said Bergant about the moment she and the world learned the man she’d known as Robert “Bob” Prevost was introduced as Pope Leo XIV.
According to Bergant, “I taught the pope how to understand the Bible. You don’t think that’s going to be part of your life. It sounds so strange, but I did.”
It was during the 1978-1979 school year at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago where Sister Dianne first met the man she called Bob.
The young 20-something seminarian took Bergant’s “Intro to the Old Testament” class his first year at the school, and subsequent classes after that.
“He was a very good student. He was an ‘A’ student. And he was always on time, which means he’s reliable,” recalled Bergant.
She taught at CTU for 45 years. Bergant says it was about a decade ago when she last saw Prevost, during an ordination for another priest in Chicago.
She sent her friend Bob an email a couple years ago after he was made a cardinal — not to congratulate him, but to thank him for the kind of ministry that brought him to the attention of the Holy Father.
Now that he himself is the Holy Father, Bergant believes Pope Leo will continue serving like he always has — including as a missionary in Peru.
“He [spent] 20 years with the poor in a foreign country — so committed to them he becomes a citizen — and you don’t turn that off. First of all, it’s got to be there for you to stay there 20 years. So he’s got that type of commitment. And then he names himself after Leo XIII — he was the champion of the working class,” Bergant said.
While Prevost is the first person from the United States to be elected pope, Bergant says Pope Leo is fair and he will not show any favoritism to his home country because he understands the real reason for his latest mission.
“His responsibility is bigger than the United States. I doubt whether he’d single out the United States for anything special. Maybe in his heart, that’s his country, but he’s realizes his heart has to be bigger,” she said.
While Bergant won’t travel for Pope Leo’s installation, she knows officials with Catholic Theological Union will be on hand for the ceremony.
