Bob from Chicago spent a large chunk of his life in Peru to became Robert Francis Cardinal Prevost who became Pope Leo XIV. An all-American story if there ever was one.
From the BBC:
Even before his name was announced from the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica, the crowds below were chanting “Viva il Papa” – Long live the Pope.
Robert Prevost, 69, will be the 267th occupant of the throne of St Peter and he will be known as Leo XIV.
He will be the first American to fill the role of Pope, although he is considered as much a cardinal from Latin America because of the many years he spent as a missionary in Peru, before becoming an archbishop there.
Born in Chicago in 1955, Prevost served as an altar boy and was ordained as a priest in 1982. Although he moved to Peru three years later, he returned regularly to the US to serve as a pastor and a prior in his home city.
He has Peruvian nationality and is fondly remembered as a figure who worked with marginalised communities and helped build bridges in the local Church.
In his first words as Pope, Leo XIV spoke fondly of his predecessor Francis.
“We still hear in our ears the weak but always courageous voice of Pope Francis who blessed us,” he said.
“United and hand in hand with God, let us advance together,” he told cheering crowds.
He also spoke of his role in the Augustinian Order. He was 30 when he moved to Peru as part of an Augustinian mission.
Francis made him Bishop of Chiclayo in Peru a year after becoming Pope.
As I mentioned in another comment, there’s something spring-like about the sede vacante – conclave – loggia event. A period of renewal and hope. Before the dog days of summer.
This is, in some ways, the high-point of the Leo XIV papacy where we all project our hopes for the entire church on a single man. Before he has made a single decision or issued his first decree. We all imagine what his priorities must be, until they are actually revealed.
There’s the funny Italian saying that a skinny Pope follows a fat one; I think many assume this means ‘ideology’ but I don’t think so. Not entirely. There are real ‘ideological constraints’ that come from simply being part of the Church; we agree on more than we disagree; and folks imagining some wild careening into their faddish ideologies will be disappointed.
However, in one sense, I do suspect we’re seeing a skinny Pope after Francis’ fat Pope (or is it the other way around?). I won’t pretend to know this new Pope’s priorities and plans for his papacy; but I think we can infer that he’s more of a ‘clean-up in aisle four’ after Francis’ ‘make a mess’ papacy. A canon lawyer who is reputed to be a careful and fair executor of his charge. In this area, I think we can say that the Cardinals thought a correction was needed.
As to the ‘hot button’ issues people want to pigeon hole him into? I’ll repeat that I’m honestly unsure where he intends to lead; I’d be lying if I didn’t have trepidation about the Cardinals who seem most invested in his investiture… but the amazing thing about the Papacy is that he really doesn’t owe his ‘faction’ anything any more. That we’ve seen over and again. The Cardinal who emerges Pope owes nothing to the Popes who emerged as Cardinals.
He chose as his name Leo XIV. Most assume he’s echoing Leo XIII (hopefully not Leo V) and that’s an interesting choice as Leo XIII is something of a Trad/Orthodox favorite. He revived Thomism as the ‘official’ theology of the seminaries, issued Rerum Novarum on the right relationship between Capital and Labor (vs. Pre-Revolutionary Marxism), and condemned Americanism (both more and less what you might assume Americanism means in this context). How Leo XIV will reimagine Leo XIII (or Leo IX [Gregorian Reform] or maybe Leo X [The Indulgences Pope]) remains to be seen.
My projection, my hope is that he *is* a continuity Pope… continuity with Leo XIII more than Francis; more careful, more thoughtful, less petty, and less autocratic than the previous – skinny to his fat and fat to his skinny. Viva il Papa.Report