Robert Francis Prevost, who was elected the 267th pope of the Roman Catholic Church on Thursday and took the title Pope Leo XIV, is the primary pope from the USA.
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 title Pope Leo XIV, the instant 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 in opposition to 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 guide his worldwide spiritual order. Underneath Pope Francis, he held one of the influential Vatican posts, working the workplace that selects and manages bishops globally.
That made him a gorgeous option to the Roman Curia, the highly effective forms that governs the church and which, after steadily 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 instructed the Vatican’s official information web site final 12 months that “the bishop isn’t speculated to be a bit of prince sitting in his kingdom, however slightly 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.”
Usually described as reserved and discreet, he probably will depart stylistically from Francis as pope. Supporters imagine he’ll almost certainly 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 probably 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 spiritual order, in Chicago.
“He’s a really balanced, measured form of one who offers nicely with disaster in a sure sense,” stated Father Francis. “It doesn’t fluster him. He thinks issues via and affords very steady management.”
He has spent a lot of his life outdoors the USA. 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 develop the geographical range of the church’s hierarchy and named many new cardinals, some from nations that had by no means had one earlier than. Francis gave Cardinal Prevost his crimson hat in 2023, making him one of many newer 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 may change into bishop in Chiclayo, a metropolis within the northwestern a part of the nation. Throughout his time as bishop in Chiclayo, he steadily visited far-flung communities.
He included lay individuals 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 individuals going to church,” she stated, “he wished the church to go to the individuals.”
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 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 improvement.
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 judge?” when requested about homosexual clerics.
In a 2012 tackle 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 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 faculties. “The promotion of gender ideology is complicated, as a result of it seeks to create genders that don’t exist,” he instructed native information media.
Cardinal Prevost, like lots 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 faculty {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 buddy had a collaborative management fashion and could possibly 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 sport of tennis and is a fan of baseball, explaining the principles to a few of his Italian buddies and fellow Augustinians.
In recent times, the Catholic archdiocese in Chicago, led by Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, grew to become 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 once they had been younger seminarians.
“I feel my classmate simply obtained it,” he stated, sounding surprised, from his workplace. “They picked man. He at all times had that sense of being acutely aware of the poor and attempting to assist them.”
When his title was first introduced within the sq., many within the crowd had been fully perplexed. “Not Italian?” a number of stated, and one man replayed the announcement he had captured on his telephone to see if he may hear the title.
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 alternate 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.
