Robert Francis Prevost, who was elected the 267th pope of the Roman Catholic Church on Thursday and took the identify Pope Leo XIV, is the primary pope from america.
The choice from the 133 voting cardinals, which arrived in a plume of white smoke on the finish of their second day of voting contained in the secrecy of the Sistine Chapel, defied longstanding perception that church leaders would by no means choose a pope from a world superpower that already has appreciable affect in world affairs.
Taking the identify Pope Leo XIV, the fast successor to Pope Francis has the potential to shake up the worldwide Catholic energy construction.
As an American, he’s uniquely positioned to face in distinction to the energized conservative Catholicism in his house nation, and has pushed again forcefully towards the militant imaginative and prescient of Christian energy that the Trump administration has elevated.
Regardless of his American roots, the Chicago-born polyglot, 69, is considered as a churchman who transcends borders. He served for 20 years in Peru, the place he turned a bishop and a naturalized citizen, then rose to guide his worldwide non secular order. Below Pope Francis, he held some of the influential Vatican posts, operating the workplace that selects and manages bishops globally.
That made him a horny option to the Roman Curia, the highly effective forms that governs the church and which, after often experiencing reprimands and upheavals from Pope Francis, wished somebody who knew, and appreciated, the establishment.
A member of the Order of St. Augustine, he shares Francis’ dedication to serving to the poor and migrants,. He advised the Vatican’s official information web site final 12 months that “the bishop will not be presupposed to be a bit prince sitting in his kingdom, however somewhat known as authentically to be humble, to be near the folks he serves, to stroll with them, to undergo with them, and to search for ways in which he can higher dwell the gospel message within the midst of his folks.”
Typically described as reserved and discreet, he seemingly will depart stylistically from Francis as pope. Supporters consider he’ll more than likely proceed the consultative course of began by Francis to incorporate lay folks in some conferences with bishops.
In a conclave with ideological divides between those that wished to proceed Pope Francis’ inclusive however at occasions provocative agenda, and people who most popular to return to a extra conservative path targeted on doctrinal purity, Pope Leo XIV seemingly represented a balanced different.
“He’s not a grandstander,” stated the Rev. Mark R. Francis, a former classmate of Cardinal Prevost, who runs the American arm of the Clerics of St. Viator, a non secular order, in Chicago.
“He’s a really balanced, measured form of one that offers effectively with disaster in a sure sense,” stated Father Francis. “It doesn’t fluster him. He thinks issues via and presents very secure management.”
He has spent a lot of his life outdoors america. Ordained in Rome in 1982 at age 27, he acquired a doctorate in canon legislation on the Pontifical College of St. Thomas Aquinas, additionally in Rome. In Peru, he was a missionary, parish priest, instructor and bishop. Because the Augustinians’ chief, he visited orders around the globe, and he speaks Spanish and Italian.
Francis sought to increase the geographical range of the church’s hierarchy and named many new cardinals, some from international locations that had by no means had one earlier than. Francis gave Cardinal Prevost his pink hat in 2023, making him one of many newer members of the Faculty of Cardinals that elected him.
A diplomatic treaty required that he be naturalized as a citizen of Peru earlier than he might change into bishop in Chiclayo, a metropolis within the northwestern a part of the nation. Throughout his time as bishop in Chiclayo, he often visited far-flung communities.
He integrated lay folks into pastoral social work, stated Yolanda Díaz, a instructor and member of the church in Chiclayo. “As an alternative of considering of pastoral work as folks going to church,” she stated, “he wished the church to go to the folks.”
Sister Dianne Bergant, who taught him in Bible courses at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, the place he acquired a masters in divinity in 1982, stated he was a quiet “A pupil.” She stated that when he was made a cardinal a long time after he had been a pupil in her class, he responded instantly to a congratulatory electronic mail she despatched him, thanking her for serving to him in his theological growth.
Pope Leo XIV might not be as brazenly welcoming in tone to L.G.B.T.Q. folks as his predecessor, who famously stated “Who am I to judge?” when requested about homosexual clerics.
In a 2012 deal with to bishops, earlier than Pope Francis’s oft-cited phrases, Cardinal Prevost lamented that Western information media and fashionable tradition fostered “sympathy for beliefs and practices which are at odds with the gospel.” He cited the “gay way of life” and “different households comprised of same-sex companions and their adopted youngsters.”
As bishop in Chiclayo, he opposed a authorities plan so as to add teachings on gender in colleges. “The promotion of gender ideology is complicated, as a result of it seeks to create genders that don’t exist,” he advised native information media.
Cardinal Prevost, like most of the others who in the end elected him, has drawn criticism over his dealings with monks accused of sexual abuse.
In Chicago, advocates for victims of sexual abuse say that his workplace didn’t warn a close-by Catholic college {that a} priest who church leaders decided had abused younger boys for years was sheltered in a monastery close by, beginning in 2000. As head of the Midwestern order of Augustinians on the time, Cardinal Prevost would have authorized the priest’s transfer to the monastery.
Buddies say he’s laid again and humble, dropping by the Augustinian monastery in Rome to eat with monks within the order and at all times washing his personal dishes, stated the Rev. Alejandro Ethical Antón, Cardinal Prevost’s successor as Augustinian chief in Rome.
The Rev. Michele Falcone, 46, a priest within the Order of St. Augustine beforehand led by Cardinal Prevost, stated his mentor and good friend had a collaborative management model and may very well be versatile relying on the context. He may put on extremely formal vestments for an imperial Mass whereas dressing extra casually for an area parish.
He’s recognized to play a sport of tennis and is a fan of baseball, explaining the foundations to a few of his Italian pals and fellow Augustinians.
In recent times, the Catholic archdiocese in Chicago, led by Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, turned an vital area of help for Pope Francis’s agenda for the church.
Chicagoans instantly rejoiced on the information that the primary American pope was a local of their metropolis. Father William Lego, the pastor of St. Turibius Church in Chicago, knew the brand new pope after they have been younger seminarians.
“I believe my classmate simply obtained it,” he stated, sounding shocked, from his workplace. “They picked an excellent man. He at all times had that sense of being aware of the poor and attempting to assist them.”
When his identify was first introduced within the sq., many within the crowd have been utterly perplexed. “Not Italian?” a number of stated, and one man replayed the announcement he had captured on his cellphone to see if he might hear the identify.
Behind him, Nicole Serena, 21, an Italian-American learning advertising in Rome, stated “I believe an American pope simply obtained elected.”
Benjamin Smith 20, from Crosby, Minn., stated he had by no means heard of Cardinal Prevost. “However that is so superior,” stated Mr. Smith, an alternate pupil learning theology on the Pontifical College of St. Thomas, the place the cardinal acquired his doctorate. “I’m so excited,” Mr. Smith stated.
In Peru, Father Pedro Vásquez, 82, a priest in Chiclayo, the place Cardinal Prevost served as archbishop, was so excited he stated that “My coronary heart goes to fail me!”
“I’m going to faint!” he stated, “Oh my god, oh my god!”
Mitra Taj contributed reporting from Lima, Peru, Julie Turkewitz from Bogotá, Colombia, Josephine de La Bruyère from Rome and Julie Bosman from Chicago.
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