Gayle King, the CBS Mornings co-anchor, recently attended Pope Leo XIV's inauguration mass alongside her close friends Oprah Winfrey and Maria Shriver on May 18. King shared her exciting experience with PEOPLE, revealing what she yelled out from the front row as the new pontiff passed by.

"You're sitting in the front row, and Pope Leo goes by in the popemobile! We are like, 'Chicago, Chicago!' " King told PEOPLE at the Gordon Parks Dinner Annual Awards Dinner and Auction on Tuesday, May 20.

Although King and Winfrey aren't Catholic like Shriver, King said, "You just felt something being in his presence. You really did." King added, "We were excited to be there to witness history."

King and Winfrey captured the moment they shouted at the pope as he drove by at the inauguration mass, sharing it to Instagram on Wednesday, May 21. In the clip, Pope Leo seems to hear them and points in their direction, which thrills them.

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Pope Leo XIV succeeded Pope Francis, who died on April 21 at the age of 88. Cardinal Robert Prevost was elected the 267th pope of the Roman Catholic Church on May 8, following a two-day conclave. Prevost, 69, chose Pope Leo XIV as his papal name.

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Elsewhere at the Gordon Parks Dinner Annual Awards Dinner and Auction, PEOPLE spoke to Gordon Parks Foundation executive director Peter W. Kunhard Jr. about the organization's yearly event.

"Tonight is about creativity, arts, and justice," Kunhard Jr. said. "It's a night about celebrating the legacy of Gordon Parks and his trailblazing contributions to art and social justice and fashion and film and all history."

This year's event honored model and activist Bethann Hardison, artist Rashid Johnson, Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, and Ambassador Andrew Young, activist and former politician.