TWENTY-FIVE YEARS ago, I visited the city of Chiclayo in northern Peru, then famous for its mercado de los brujos. Now it’s famous for producing Pope Leo XIV, new spiritual leader for 1.4 billion Catholics.
I was shocked when the conclave chose as pope Robert Prevost, a Chicago native and a Peruvian citizen. Prevost first went to Peru in 1985, when he was 30. After he served in various roles for his Augustinian order in northern Peru, Pope Francis appointed Prevost to the Diocese of Chiclayo, where he became bishop and served for nine years. Prevost worked with the Peruvian conference of Catholic bishops and on the conference’s economic council and commission for culture and education. In 2023, Pope Francis appointed him head of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, putting Prevost in much closer contact with bishops across the continent. That same year, he became a cardinal. He is not “the first American pope”: Jorge Bergoglio, from Argentina, was. But Prevost, as the first U.S.-born pope, signals that Catholicism in the United States has come of age in the global Catholic Church.
Prevost-the-missionary-cardinal appears well-suited to institutionalize Pope Francis’ prophetic and expansive vision. However, Prevost-the-first-U.S.-born-pope seems more unpredictable. I’m grateful that he spoke Italian and Spanish at his opening address, signaling his close ties in Rome and Latin America. I’m glad he chose the name Leo, traditionally understood to recall Brother Leo, the confessor of St. Francis of Assisi, and Leo XIII, who instituted the foundational documents for Catholic social teaching in 1891.
And I’m anxious for him. When a man is chosen pope, it feels as if the world straps the cross to his back. Whatever life he enjoyed before ends. He becomes the rudder of the Barque of Peter. We see him age under the pressure. And yet, the Holy Spirit uses him to become the living essence of the gospel — each gesture of love, as Pope Francis demonstrated, can bring the Word to life.
Read the Full Article
