Leo XIVThe first pope from the United States, was chairman of his first mass as a leader of 1.4 billion Roman Catholics on Friday and promised to tailor himself to “ordinary people” and not with the rich and powerful. He also called for a missionary outreach to cure the ‘wounds that our society’.
The election of Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, a resident of Chicago, because Pope represents a single moment in the history of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. But some cardinals who selected him said that his life of the poor in Peru and his senior roles in the Vatican did much more in the conclave Then nationality are.
During a press conference in Rome on Friday, some cardinals said the discussion about the American background of Cardinal Prevost, in the worlds of Cardinal Robert Mcelroy, the new archbishop of Washington, DC, “almost too negligible”.
The conclave was not “continuation of the American election,” said Cardinal Wilton Gregory, Archbishop Emeritus of Washington, DC added: “It was a desire to strengthen the Christian faith among God’s people.”
In Leo’s persistent advocacy for the poor, migrants and a “synodal” church that seeks input from parishioners instead of just directing them, many people saw a continuation of his predecessor, Pope Francis, although Leo is seen as stiller and less charismatic.
“It matters that we have a pope and a spiritual leader whose heart is for migrants,” said Cardinal Pablo Virgilio Siongco David of the Philippines at the press conference. “And I think he will keep the direction of Pope Francis.”
Risky but inevitable predictions of what papacy will be, were abundant, inside and outside the church.
Pope Leo will confront soon Questions that are deeply distributed Roman Catholics, such as a greater involvement of lay people and women in decision-making, and a more hospitable view of divorced people and gays. Francis took steps in each of those instructions and even weighing the consecration of married priests under limited circumstances. Those positions earned the hostility of conservative traditionalists who wanted a more top-down doctrinal Catholicism.
American church leaders refuted every suggestion that Leo’s elections should be seen in an American political context, but he could stand at odds with the right -wing turn of the United States under President Trump, especially with migrants.
Asked if the cardinals who supported the new Pope as a counterweight for Mr Trump, Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, archbishop of New York, saw shoulders.
“Would he want to build bridges on Donald Trump? I suppose,” he said at the press conference in Rome. “But he would like to build bridges with the leaders of every nation.”
Like many in the hierarchy of the church, as a cardinal, Leo was criticized about his treatment of priests accused of sexual abuse, both in Chicago and in Peru. The constant consequences of such cases all over the world, and the history of the church to cover them, is probably another major challenge of his papacy, as they were for each of the three previous popes. (In 2012, the cardinal expressed himself against the popular culture that accepted ‘homosexual lifestyle’.)
Leo XIV is a member of the Order of St. Augustine, a group that is known for a mission range to communities and broad consultations in decision -making, both within the Order and with parishioners.
“That is very interesting for a pope, because it means that he is focused on cooperation decision,” said Sister Gemma Simmonds, an author and senior researcher at Margaret Beaufort Institute of theology at Cambridge University.
The last pope named Leo is remembered for his encyclical Rerum Novarum from 1891, who criticizes capitalist excesses and the miserable state of the working class. Some analysts and prelates read a connection with that history in the choice of Leo XIV for a name.
“We may have a Rerum Novarum 2.0,” said Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, the Archbishop of Chicago.
In the Sixtine Chapel on Friday, where his fellow cardinals had chosen him a day earlier, the new Pope called for Francis’s doctrine in his mass and said that a loss of religious faith had contributed to “terrible violations of human dignity” around the world.
Following the frequent criticism from Francis on prelates who enjoy their attributes and placed themselves above their herd, Leo said it was the duty of cardinals to ‘go aside’ and ‘make themselves small’.
In his homily, he also complained that Christianity is seen on many atmospheres as ‘absurd, intended for the weak and non -intelligent’. He spoke about institutions where, instead of faith and service, “other effects are preferred, such as technology, money, success, power or pleasure.”
The new pope worked in Peru for more than 20 years, where he was praised this week as an almost native son. As a young brother in the Augustinian mission in the northwestern city of Chulucanas, “one of the things he did, it is insisted that the leadership of the mission becomes native,” said John Allen, a veteran Vatican analyst. That fact may have made an impression on an ever -increasing college or cardinals that ultimately selected Leo.
Leo later returned to Peru as bishop of Chiclayo, a function for which he became a Peruvian citizen. Priests remembered that he often traveled deep in the hinterland to meet people, listened extensively to them, and that when there was a recoil against migrants who had fled Venezuela, Bishop Prevost organized clergy and people seemed to take care of them.
Many analysts had said that the election of a Pope from the United States was unlikely, with a large part of the world already saw the country as an excessive power, but Leo’s long history outside the country might have made less problem.
However, the contrast with President Trump is clear. A social media account under the name of Cardinal Prevost had again posted messages that were critical of the functions of the president on issues such as immigration, massive deportation, weapon control and climate change.
And in February the social media account had a riposte for comments from vice -president JD Vance, who claimed on Fox News that Christian theology could justify to avert migrants and strangers in need because the care for family comes first.
“You love your family and then you love your neighbor, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens in your own country, and then you can concentrate and prioritize the rest of the world,” said Mr. Vanc.
In response, the social media account shared a link to an article in the national Catholic reporter entitled ”JD Vance is wrong: Jesus does not ask us to rank our love for others. “
Reporting was contributed by Matthew Mpoke Bigg” Elisabetta Povoledo” Patricia Mazzei” Motoko Rich” Mitra Taj” Julie Turkewitz And Genevieve Glatsky.
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