The prayers of the parishioners gathered this Thursday in the Chicago Cathedral were treated at about noon, local time. The television broadcasts that followed the result of the conclave in Rome. And that Pope was Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost. Born in the great capital of the West Middle 69 years ago, he chose the name of Leo XIV to become the first American in history who sits in the San Pedro chair.
Prevost, who was a bishop of Chiclayo, in Peru, where he spent 40 years, challenged almost all pools, which did not bet because the chosen one came from this part of the world.
Unlike most of his compatriots, this Augustinian is polyglot and has spent much of his life outside the United States.
He ordered as a priest in 1982 at age 27. He a doctorate in Canon Law at the Pontifical University of Santo Tomás de Aquino in Rome. In Peru, where the community was involved and to obtain nationality, he was a missionary, pastor, professor and bishop. His performance as a missionary was something that his predecessor, Francisco, especially valued.
Spanish and Italian speak, as demonstrated on Thursday during his first intervention as Pope, in which he resigned from the use of English. Until Francisco’s death, he occupied one of the most influential charges of the Vatican: it was prefect since 2023 of the Dicastery of the Bishops.
His appointment is interpreted as a continuation of the progressive mood of his predecessor. It is expected to continue with some of Francisco’s policies, although he does not share his open and outgoing personality. Those who know him define him as a discreet and reserved man, who felt the call of the priesthood due to his father, Louis Marius Prevost, of French and Italian ancestry, and catechist. His mother, Mildred Martínez, was of Spanish origin.
It is not clear if it will be so open with gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Catholics as Francisco was. In a speech to the bishops in 2012, he regretted that the Western media and popular culture would encourage “sympathy for beliefs and practices contrary to the Gospel,” he informs The New York Times. He cited the “homosexual lifestyle” and the “alternative families composed of same -sex couples and their adoptive children.”
Sexual abuse
He has also received criticism for his deal with priests accused of sexual abuse, the great sin of the American church in recent decades. In 1999, he was elected prior provincial of the Augustinians of the west medium. A year after assuming the position, he allowed a priest who sexually abused minors lived in a Chicago rectory half a block from a Catholic school. In 2022, he was accused in Chiclayo for not opening an investigation into his accusations of abuse against two priests. The diocese flatly denied that accusation.
Upon knowing the news, US President Donald Trump wrote on his social network, Truth: “Congratulations to Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, who has just been appointed Pope. It is a great honor to know that he is the first American Pope. What emotion and what a great honor for our country! I hope to meet Pope Leo XIV XIV. It will be a very significant moment!” Trump, who confronted him with him, went a couple of weeks ago to Francisco’s funeral in Rome.
American Catholicism is living a boom to which this appointment most likely contributes. Vice President JD Vance is a convert Catholic, and former president Joe Biden was the first president who professed that faith from John F. Kennedy. Catholic schools also experienced an increase in registrations during pandemic.
