[TRANSCRIPT] For the first time ever, the Catholic Church has elected an American to be the Vatican’s 267th leader.
Robert Francis Prevost of Chicago was elected by his colleagues on Thursday, May 8th, and has chosen to be called Pope Leo XIV.
The last Pope with that name was Leo XIII, who was Pope for 25 years ending in 1903. He was known for helping modernize the Church while it grappled with urbanization and industrialization.
In his first remarks to Vatican Square, the 69-year-old Pope appeared to choke back tears.
According to his brother John Prevost, Robert Francis Prevost was always destined to be on the path of faith.
“We knew when he was a little kid that he would be a priest. That was never a question. We all knew that. But I don’t think it went so far as he would be Pope. One of the neighborhood ladies across the street said to him, ’You will be the first American pope.’ She knew that, she sensed that at six years old.”
Pope Leo is a citizen of the U.S. and Peru and reportedly speaks seven languages.
His appointment comes as somewhat of a surprise given that he was not among top candidates.
The Reverend Thomas Reese, a senior analyst with Religion News Service, told the Washington Times, if Prevost was Italian, “he’d have been on everyone’s shortlist because of his background.”
Cardinal Prevost served as a missionary in Peru in the 1980s and returned to the country after Pope Francis appointed him Bishop of the Peruvian port city of Chiclayo in 2014 and then in 2020 as the Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Callao near the Peruvian capital of Lima.
During his first remarks, Pope Leo called himself a son of St. Augustine, the influential church figure from the 4th and 5th centuries.
Augustine believed humans were inherently flawed and could attain righteousness only through faith.
Admiration for St. Francis is something the Pope shares with Vice President J.D. Vance, who said the Saint’s teaching helped persuade him to convert to Catholicism.
However, that didn’t prevent then-Cardinal Prevost from criticizing the Vice President. Writing earlier this year, “JD Vance is wrong. Jesus didn’t ask us to rank our love for others.”
This post was in response to Vice President Vance arguing that the ancient Catholic doctrine of “ordo amoris,” Latin for ordered love, helped justify the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration, and dramatic cutbacks on foreign aid.
Uniting an increasingly polarized church is expected to be among the Pope’s biggest challenges.
Conservative U.S. Catholics, for example, who had been pushing for a pontiff who shared their views, have already shown frustration with the selection of another church leader whose views are likely to be aligned with those of Pope Francis, who was deemed by many to be progressive.
Pope Leo’s brother John Prevost forecasts a similar trajectory.
“I think he will be a second Pope Francis. I think he’s got great concern for the plight of the poor, for the downtrodden, for the people who don’t have a voice. So I think I think you’ll see that kind of action going on.”
For The Washington Times, I’m Emma Ayers.
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