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 the US.
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 worldwide superpower that already has appreciable affect in world affairs.
Taking the identify Pope Leo XIV, the speedy 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 residence 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 twenty years in Peru, the place he grew to become a bishop and a naturalized citizen, then rose to steer his worldwide non secular order. Underneath Pope Francis, he held one of the influential Vatican posts, operating the workplace that selects and manages bishops globally.
That made him a sexy option to the Roman Curia, the highly effective paperwork that governs the church and which, after continuously 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 just isn’t alleged to be somewhat prince sitting in his kingdom, however fairly known as authentically to be humble, to be near the individuals he serves, to stroll with them, to endure with them, and to search for ways in which he can higher stay the gospel message within the midst of his individuals.”
Typically described as reserved and discreet, he possible will depart stylistically from Francis as pope. Supporters imagine he’ll most definitely proceed the consultative course of began by Francis to incorporate lay individuals 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 those that most popular to return to a extra conservative path targeted on doctrinal purity, Pope Leo XIV possible represented a balanced various.
“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 sort of one that offers nicely with disaster in a sure sense,” stated Father Francis. “It doesn’t fluster him. He thinks issues by and provides very steady management.”
He has spent a lot of his life exterior the US. 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, trainer and bishop. Because the Augustinians’ chief, he visited orders all over the world, 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 purple hat in 2023, making him one of many more moderen members of the School 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 continuously visited far-flung communities.
He included lay individuals into pastoral social work, stated Yolanda Díaz, a trainer and member of the church in Chiclayo. “As a substitute of pondering of pastoral work as individuals going to church,” she stated, “he wished the church to go to the individuals.”
Sister Dianne Bergant, who taught him in Bible lessons at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, the place he acquired a masters in divinity in 1982, stated he was a quiet “A scholar.” She stated that when he was made a cardinal a long time after he had been a scholar in her class, he responded instantly to a congratulatory e-mail she despatched him, thanking her for serving to him in his theological growth.
Pope Leo XIV is probably not as brazenly welcoming in tone to L.G.B.T.Q. individuals as his predecessor, who famously stated “Who am I to guage?” 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 common tradition fostered “sympathy for beliefs and practices which might be at odds with the gospel.” He cited the “gay life-style” and “various 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 faculties. “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 lots of the others who finally 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 authorised 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 all the time 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 buddy had a collaborative management fashion and might be versatile relying on the context. He would possibly put on extremely formal vestments for an imperial Mass whereas dressing extra casually for an area parish.
He’s recognized to play a recreation of tennis and is a fan of baseball, explaining the principles to a few of his Italian associates and fellow Augustinians. Nonetheless, stated Father Falcone, “it isn’t like Pope Francis. His ardour doesn’t attain these ranges.”
In recent times, the Catholic archdiocese in Chicago, led by Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, grew to become an necessary area of assist 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 had been younger seminarians.
“I feel my classmate simply obtained it,” he stated, sounding surprised, from his workplace. “They picked a superb man. He all the time had that sense of being acutely aware of the poor and making an attempt to assist them.”
When his identify was first introduced within the sq., many within the crowd had been utterly perplexed. “Not Italian?” a number of stated, and one man replayed the announcement he had captured on his telephone to see if he might hear the identify.
Behind him, Nicole Serena, 21, an Italian-American finding out advertising and marketing in Rome, stated “I feel 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 trade scholar finding out 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.
