New Pope, Cardinal Robert Prevost, takes name Leo XIV
By Cindy Wooden, CNS – Cardinal Robert
Prevost, the Chicago-born prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops under Pope
Francis, was elected the 267th pope on May 8 and took the name Pope Leo XIV.
He was the first North American to be elected pope
and, before the conclave, was the U.S. cardinal most mentioned as a potential
successor of St. Peter.
The white smoke poured from the chimney on the
roof of the Sistine Chapel at 6:07 p.m. Rome time and a few minutes later the
bells of St. Peter’s Basilica began to ring.
About 20 minutes later the Vatican police band
and two dozen members of the Pontifical Swiss Guard marched into St. Peter’s
Square. They soon were joined by the marching band of the Italian Carabinieri,
a branch of military police, and by units of the other branches of the Italian
military.
As soon as news began to spread, people from all
over Rome ran to join the tens of thousands who were already in the square for
the smoke watch. Rome Mayor Roberto Gualtieri was among them.
French Cardinal Dominique Mamberti, protodeacon
of the College of Cardinals, appeared on the central balcony of St. Peter’s
Basilica at 7:12 p.m. He told the crowd: “I announce to you a great joy. We
have a pope (‘Habemus papam’),” saying the cardinal’s name in Latin and
announcing the name by which he will be called.
Cardinals over the age of 80, who were not
eligible to enter the conclave, joined the crowd in the square. Among them were
Cardinals Seán P. O’Malley, the retired archbishop of Boston; Donald W. Wuerl,
the retired archbishop of Washington; and Marc Ouellet, retired prefect of the
Congregation for Bishops.
A longtime missionary in Peru, the 69-year-old
pope holds both U.S. and Peruvian citizenship.
La Repubblica, the major Italian daily,
described him on April 25 as “cosmopolitan and shy,” but also said he was
“appreciated by conservatives and progressives. He has global visibility in a
conclave in which few (cardinals) know each other.”
That visibility comes from the fact that as
prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops for the past two years, he was
instrumental in helping Pope Francis choose bishops for many Latin-rite
dioceses, he met hundreds of bishops during their “ad limina” visits to Rome
and was called to assist the world’s Latin-rite bishops “in all matters
concerning the correct and fruitful exercise of the pastoral office entrusted
to them.”
The new pope was serving as bishop of Chiclayo,
Peru, when Pope Francis called him to the Vatican in January 2023.
During a talk at St. Jude Parish in Chicago in
August, the then-cardinal said Pope Francis nominated him “specifically because
he did not want someone from the Roman Curia to take on this role. He wanted a
missionary; he wanted someone from outside; he wanted someone who would come in
with a different perspective.”
In a March 2024 interview with Catholic News
Service, he said Pope Francis’ decision in 2022 to name three women as full
members of the dicastery, giving them input on the selection of bishops
“contributes significantly to the process of discernment in looking for who we
hope are the best candidates to serve the church in episcopal ministry.”
To deter attitudes of clericalism among bishops,
he said, “It’s important to find men who are truly interested in serving, in
preaching the Gospel, not just with eloquent words, but rather with the example
and witness they give.”
In fact, the cardinal said, Pope Francis’ “most
effective and important” bulwark against clericalism was his being “a pastor
who preaches by gesture.”
In an interview in 2023 with Vatican News, then-Cardinal
Prevost spoke about the essential leadership quality of a bishop.
“Pope Francis has spoken of four types of
closeness: closeness to God, to brother bishops, to priests, and to all God’s
people,” he said. “One must not give in to the temptation to live isolated,
separated in a palace, satisfied with a certain social level or a certain level
within the church.”
“And we must not hide behind an idea of authority
that no longer makes sense today,” he said. “The authority we have is to serve,
to accompany priests, to be pastors and teachers.”
As prefect of the dicastery then-Cardinal Prevost
also served as president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, where
nearly 40% of the world’s Catholics reside.
A Chicago native, he also served as a prior general
of the Augustinians and spent more than two decades serving in Peru, first as
an Augustinian missionary and later as bishop of Chiclayo.
Soon after coming to Rome to head the dicastery,
he told Vatican News that bishops have a special mission of promoting the unity
of the church.
“The lack of unity is a wound that the church
suffers, a harrowing one,” he said in May 2023. “Divisions and polemics in
the church do not help anything. We bishops especially must accelerate this
movement toward unity, toward communion in the church.”
In September, a television program in Peru
reported on the allegations of three women who said that then-Bishop Prevost
failed to act against a priest who sexually abused them as minors. The diocese
strongly denied the accusation, pointing out that he personally met with the
victims in April 2022, removed the priest from his parish, suspended him from
ministry, and conducted a local investigation that was then forwarded to the
Vatican. The Vatican said there was insufficient evidence to proceed, as did
the regional prosecutor’s office.
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