Leo XIV Chosen as First American Pope: How It Occurred
Per the Related Press’s primer forward of the conclave:
Francis introduced Prevost, 69, to the Vatican in 2023 to function the highly effective head of the workplace that vets bishop nominations from all over the world, one of the vital essential jobs within the Catholic Church. In consequence, Prevost has a prominence going into the conclave that few different cardinals have.
One strike towards him, nonetheless, is that he’s American, and there has lengthy been a taboo towards a U.S. pope, given the geopolitical energy already wielded by the USA within the secular sphere. However Prevost, a Chicago native, could possibly be a primary as a result of he’s additionally a Peruvian citizen and lived for years in Peru, first as a missionary after which as an archbishop.
Prevost was additionally twice elected prior normal, or prime chief, of the Augustinian spiritual order, the thirteenth century order based by St. Augustine. Francis clearly had an eye fixed on him for years, shifting him from the Augustinian management again to Peru in 2014 to function the administrator and later archbishop of Chiclayo.
He remained in that place, buying Peruvian citizenship in 2015, till Francis introduced him to Rome in 2023 to imagine the presidency of the Pontifical Fee for Latin America. In that job he would have stored in common contact with the Catholic hierarchy within the a part of the world that counts nonetheless counts essentially the most Catholics.
Ever since he arrived in Rome, Prevost has stored a low public profile, however he’s well-known to the boys who rely.
Considerably, he presided over one of the vital revolutionary reforms Francis made, when he added three girls to the voting bloc that decides which bishop nominations to ahead to the pope. In early 2025, Francis once more confirmed his esteem by appointing Prevost to essentially the most senior rank of cardinals, suggesting he would at the very least be Francis’ alternative in an any future conclave.
Prevost’s comparative youth may rely towards him if his brother cardinals don’t need to decide to a pope who may reign for an additional twenty years.
