'Down to earth' Pope Leo once preached about TV show

A priest who knows the new pope described him as "down to earth" and said he had once preached about Susan Boyle's appearance on the TV show Britain's Got Talent.

Father George Donaghy, an Augustinian Friar from Clare Priory in Suffolk, met Pope Leo XIV in the United States in the 1990s and later lived near him in Rome for three years.

"He does have a good sense of humour," Father Donaghy said, remembering how the Pope had spoken at an Augustinian meeting in Rome.

"He preached on when Susan Boyle was in Britain's Got Talent and he saw her on that, so he's a very down to earth guy, he's very in tune with the world."

Susan Boyle shot to fame in 2009 after her audition for the third series of Britain's Got Talent went viral.

Leo XIV invested Father George with his first habit and, later when they were both in Rome, they would spend some mealtimes together and go on retreats with other priests.

"I lived with him on the same site in Rome for three years," Father Donaghy told BBC Radio Suffolk.

"My phone was going off the hook yesterday.

"My family has met him because he did my solemn profession [a formal Catholic ceremony] so I've known him for some years.

"I was hoping he'd get the job, I didn't think he would.

"It feels really weird it being someone you know, but he's a lovely, lovely man."

Father George said Leo XIV had a "calm, serene manner" and "you felt very comfortable in his company".

He stressed there were other Augustinians who knew the new Pope better, but he was pleased to see him selected.

"We need people in touch with the world in which we live and he's certainly that," he added.

Leo XIV is the first American pope and has spent a number of years in Peru.

He celebrated his first mass on Friday in the Sistine Chapel in Rome.

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