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 world superpower that already has appreciable affect in world affairs.
Taking the identify Pope Leo XIV, the quick 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 dwelling 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 20 years in Peru, the place he grew to become a bishop and a naturalized citizen, then rose to guide his worldwide spiritual order. Beneath Pope Francis, he held probably the most 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 incessantly experiencing reprimands and upheavals from Pope Francis, needed 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 yr that “the bishop shouldn’t be presupposed to be a little bit prince sitting in his kingdom, however fairly 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.”
Usually described as reserved and discreet, he seemingly will depart stylistically from Francis as pope. Supporters consider he’ll most probably 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 needed to proceed Pope Francis’ inclusive however at instances provocative agenda, and people who most well-liked to return to a extra conservative path targeted on doctrinal purity, Pope Leo XIV seemingly represented a balanced various.
“He’s not a grandstander,” mentioned 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 type of one that offers nicely with disaster in a sure sense,” mentioned Father Francis. “It doesn’t fluster him. He thinks issues via and provides very steady management.”
He has spent a lot of his life outdoors the US. Ordained in Rome in 1982 at age 27, he obtained 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 variety 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 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 turn into bishop in Chiclayo, a metropolis within the northwestern a part of the nation. Throughout his time as bishop in Chiclayo, he incessantly visited far-flung communities.
He included lay folks into pastoral social work, mentioned Yolanda Díaz, a instructor and member of the church in Chiclayo. “As a substitute of considering of pastoral work as folks going to church,” she mentioned, “he needed the church to go to the folks.”
Sister Dianne Bergant, who taught him in Bible lessons at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, the place he obtained a masters in divinity in 1982, mentioned he was a quiet “A scholar.” She mentioned that when he was made a cardinal many years 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 might not be as overtly welcoming in tone to L.G.B.T.Q. folks as his predecessor, who famously mentioned “Who am I to judge?” when requested about homosexual clerics.
In a 2012 handle to bishops, earlier than Pope Francis’s oft-cited phrases, Cardinal Prevost lamented that Western information media and well-liked tradition fostered “sympathy for beliefs and practices which are at odds with the gospel.” He cited the “gay way of life” 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 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 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 permitted the priest’s transfer to the monastery.
Mates 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, mentioned 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, mentioned his mentor and pal had a collaborative management fashion and could possibly 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 identified to play a recreation of tennis and is a fan of baseball, explaining the foundations to a few of his Italian mates and fellow Augustinians. Nonetheless, mentioned Father Falcone, “it’s not like Pope Francis. His ardour doesn’t attain these ranges.”
Lately, the Catholic archdiocese in Chicago, led by Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, grew to become an essential 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 feel my classmate simply bought it,” he mentioned, sounding shocked, from his workplace. “They picked a great 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 fully perplexed. “Not Italian?” a number of mentioned, 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 finding out advertising and marketing in Rome, mentioned “I feel an American pope simply bought elected.”
Benjamin Smith 20, from Crosby, Minn., mentioned he had by no means heard of Cardinal Prevost. “However that is so superior,” mentioned Mr. Smith, an trade scholar finding out theology on the Pontifical College of St. Thomas, the place the cardinal obtained his doctorate. “I’m so excited,” Mr. Smith mentioned.
In Peru, Father Pedro Vásquez, 82, a priest in Chiclayo, the place Cardinal Prevost served as archbishop, was so excited he mentioned that “My coronary heart goes to fail me!”
“I’m going to faint!” he mentioned, “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.
