By Tom Tracy - Florida Catholic

MIAMI | A former chaplain at Belen Jesuit Preparatory School in Miami, who was in Rome during the election of the new pontiff, said he finds a deeper meaning in the historic events of recent weeks, given that 2025 is a Jubilee Year.

“The period of interregnum, which just concluded with the election of Pope Leo XIV, was lived within the greater context of the Jubilee Year. It was a great coincidence -or rather providential- that these two temporary and intense moments in the life of the Church would be lived at the same time,” said Jesuit Father Christian Sáenz, a professor at Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University and a 1995 graduate of Belen Jesuit.

The theme of the Jubilee Year, the priest said, resounded in his thoughts throughout the days leading up to the conclave. “We are pilgrims of hope. Hope is one of the theological virtues, an essential element in the life of a Christian because hope orients our faith,” Father Sáenz told The Florida Catholic recently.

It is with the hope of the Resurrection that Christians celebrated this Easter season and prayed for Pope Francis, and it is with the hope in the forgiveness of our sins that pilgrims make their way to the Holy Door during this Jubilee, he added.

The time to prepare the conclave, which also coincided with a time of mourning for the passing of Pope Francis - and the short couple of days in which the Church around the world waited for the smoke and bells in St. Peter’s Square - could be seen as an enormous exercise in Christian hope.

“Watching the faithful from around the world convene on St. Peter’s Square as the white smoke billowed out from the Sistine Chapel’s roof and as bells rang out across Rome summoned an aura of hope that radiated worldwide,” the priest added.

After graduating from Belen, the future priest continued his studies at Syracuse University in New York, obtaining a bachelor’s degree in international relations and Italian language in 2000.

Two years after graduation, he entered the Society of Jesus and began his Jesuit formation at the novitiate in Santiago, Dominican Republic. He continued his studies at Fordham University, a Jesuit University in New York, and graduated with a master’s degree in philosophy in 2006.

Upon graduation, he worked at Belen as a social studies teacher for two years and afterward went to the Pontifical Gregorian University in Italy. There, he earned a baccalaureate in sacred theology in 2011 and stayed until completing his doctorate in Church history.

Born and raised in Miami, Florida, to Colombian parents, Father Sáenz said his lifelong faith journey was nurtured by Catholic education, first at St. Hugh School and later at Belen Jesuit Preparatory School.

Father Sáenz points out that Pope Leo XIV’s first words to the city and the world were “forceful and confident, speaking of the peace of knowing that Christ will always be with us, even when evil in the world tries to deprive us of that hope of peace.”

That same confidence was back again the following day at “the pope’s first Mass of thanksgiving with the cardinals gathered in the Sistine Chapel, as he sang the Mass and spoke with clarity and conviction,” he added.

“In a subtle way, the pope has already demonstrated versatility in expression by speaking in Italian, Spanish, Latin, and English,” Father Sáenz said.

“His long experience in Peru coupled with growing up in Chicago certainly creates a bridge between northern and southern hemispheres, something which we might well relate to in Florida,” he added.

Latin, the Church’s official language, holds a special place in his heart. Father Sáenz not only teaches Latin but also celebrates Mass in both the ordinary and extraordinary forms. For him, Latin serves as a bridge between the past and present, uniting Catholics across generations and cultures.

“In Rome, the question all around town is now ‘Who is he? How is he going to be?’” Father Sáenz said of the new pontiff.

“I answer that with the same hope and patience that brought us our new pope: We shall also get to know Pope Leo XIV.”