For betting varieties, the traditional knowledge says to not put your cash on a pope from america.
But one American some Vatican watchers say might scrape collectively sufficient votes is Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, 69, a Chicago-born polyglot who’s 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 non secular order. He now holds one of the crucial influential Vatican posts.
As ideological camps tussle over whether or not to proceed Pope Francis’ inclusive agenda or return to a conservative doctrinal path, supporters of Cardinal Prevost pitch him as a balanced various among the papabili, as doubtless candidates for the papacy are identified.
The Rev. Michele Falcone, 46, a priest within the Order of St. Augustine beforehand led by Cardinal Prevost, described his mentor and buddy because the “dignified center of the street.”
The cardinal resembles Francis in his dedication to the poor and migrants and to assembly individuals the place they’re. He instructed the Vatican’s official information web site final yr that “the bishop is just not alleged to be a bit prince sitting in his kingdom.” Relatively, he stated, a church chief is “known as authentically to be humble, to be near the individuals he serves, to stroll with them, to endure with them.”
Cardinal Prevost, appointed by Francis in 2023 to run the Vatican workplace that selects and manages bishops globally, has spent a lot of his life exterior america. Ordained in 1982 at age 27, he obtained a doctorate in canon regulation on the Pontifical College of St. Thomas Aquinas 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 speaks Spanish and Italian.
The cardinal understands that the middle of the Roman Catholic Church “is just not in america or the North Atlantic,” stated Raúl E. Zegarra, assistant professor of Catholic theological research at Harvard Divinity College.
Given Cardinal Prevost’s worldwide expertise, data of america and work contained in the Vatican hierarchy, stated Marco Politi, a veteran Vatican analyst in Rome, “if he weren’t American, this is able to make him robotically a papabile, actually.”
Cardinal Prevost, who is usually described as reserved and discreet, would depart stylistically from Francis, who till his death last month drew roaring crowds and stopped to bless a baby towards his docs’ recommendation.
“He doesn’t have excesses,” Father Falcone stated of Cardinal Prevost. “Blessing infants, sure. Taking them in his arms, no.”
Supporters of the cardinal stated they anticipated him to proceed the consultative course of began by Francis to ask lay individuals to fulfill with bishops.
“I do know that Bob believes that everyone has a proper and an obligation to specific themselves within the church,” 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.
Whereas Francis stated, “Who am I to judge?” when requested about homosexual clerics, Cardinal Prevost has expressed much less welcoming views to L.G.B.T.Q. individuals.
In a 2012 deal with to bishops, he lamented that Western information media and well-liked tradition fostered “sympathy for beliefs and practices which can be at odds with the gospel.” He cited the “gay way of life” and “various households comprised of same-sex companions and their adopted kids.”
As bishop in Chiclayo, a metropolis in northwestern Peru, 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 instructed native information media.
Whereas praised in Peru for supporting Venezuelan immigrants and visiting far-flung communities, the cardinal has drawn criticism over his dealings with clergymen accused of sexual abuse.
One girl in Chiclayo who stated she and two different girls had been sexually abused by two clergymen as ladies lengthy earlier than Cardinal Prevost was bishop accused him of mishandling an investigation and of not stopping one of many clergymen from celebrating Mass.
The diocese of Chiclayo stated Cardinal Prevost opened an investigation that the Vatican closed. After a brand new bishop arrived, the investigation was reopened. Supporters of Cardinal Prevost say he’s the goal of a smear marketing campaign by members of a Peruvian-based Catholic motion that Francis disbanded.
In Chicago, activists say 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.
Makes an attempt to succeed in Cardinal Prevost for this text weren’t profitable.
Pals of the cardinal say he speaks fastidiously.
In contrast with Francis, his language is “extra serene,” stated the Rev. Alejandro Ethical Antón, Cardinal Prevost’s successor as Augustinian chief.
The place Francis would possibly instantly converse his thoughts, Cardinal Prevost “holds himself again a bit,” Father Ethical Antón added.
Mitra Taj contributed reporting from Lima, Peru, and Josephine de La Bruyère from Rome.
