Pope Leo XIV. Among progressives and conservatives with three women in the middle

When Robert Francis Prevost emerged on the Vatican’s porch, as Pope Leo XIV, many progressives must have uttered blasphemies to the American « conservative ». After all, Leo XIV chose to wear the ‘clothes’ associated with conservatives, leaving the renewers to quote the devil. The South Korean-who has lived in Brazil for almost 60 years-Jung Mo Sung, theologian and scientist of religion (this is how it is presented by the website of the Humanitas Unisinos Institute), wrote an article right after the session of the High Pontiff’s inauguration: “By seeing him for the first time as Pope, his traditional Pope that seemed the most sad Pope Benedict than Francis. I followed the transmission participating in a small group of whatsapp and posted that I didn’t like it. But when he listened to his speech and after reading it calmly, I realized or reinterpreted this image. bridges and dialogues.

Who is the new Pope

As it is easy to see, it is very little known to the former Cardinal Robert Prevost, hence that these days Pope Leo XIV can please the progressives and conservatives and even the three women who were part of his bishops’ dicker-all the nominations of the new bishops of the last two years have passed. All because it is not known which way will go, although many who have deciphered their first words, saying that we are facing a reformist who will follow Pope Francis’ work, while others think otherwise. “Until the Pope makes his 1st encyclical (a kind of Vatican government program) will know little from the way to follow. Where will the Synodal process? Will anyone? The conservatives are disposable?” Asks a conservative wing priest.

The mestizo blood

Born in Chicago, USA, on February 14, 1955, Predost had immigrant grandparents: « I was born in the United States, my parents were born in Chicago, but my grandparents were all immigrants, French, Spanish, » he said in an interview with TG1. To realize how today everything has a meaning, even if it is a simple yawning, so the friends of immigrants said that this past of Pope Leo XIV is a sign of the way that will follow. There are theories for everything …

Continuing what is known, Predost liked to play tennis, among other sports, and from an early age, he simulated that he gave masses, according to one of his two brothers. The parents were deeply Catholic-the mother worked as a librarian and was notable in the choir, while the father gave catechesis in the local parish. Two aunts were nuns and Predost’s two brothers were also acolytes, like him.

According to Vatican NewsPope Leo XIV « spent childhood and adolescence with family and studied first at the Minor Seminary of Agostinian priests and then at Villanova University in Pennsylvania, where he graduated in 1997 in mathematics and studied philosophy. »

According to the same publication, it was by this time that he entered the novitiate of the Order of St. Augustine in St. Louis, Chicago, and shortly thereafter made the first votes – poverty, chastity and obedience. Almost three years later, he made the solemn votes. He graduated in theology at Catholic Theological Union, and then sent to Rome, where he studied canon law at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas. He was ordained a priest by D. Jean Jadot at the Agostinian College for non-Christians, now a dicker for the interreligious dialogue. The Pope’s life seems to have always been crossed with the two faces of the church currency, Jadot was considered a great progressive, according to the chronicles.

He obtained the degree in 1984 and the following year was sent to the Augustinian Mission in Chulucanas, Peru. He lived for many years in this country, first in a poorest region, then returned to Peru at the request of Pope Francis, as a bishop, having participated as vice president at the Peruvian Episcopal Conference-Robert Prevost also acquired Peruvian nationality.

According to the Humanitas Unisinos Institute, which we can say that it identifies with the progressive wing, Predost « played a political role when the bishops tried a peaceful and democratic mediation at the time the power of then -President Pedro Castillo was hesitant. » The new Pope became known in Peru for his struggle in favor of the poor and the oppressed.

Before he had been appointed Prior General of the Order of St. Augustine. Making a leap on his way, even for the text not to look like a Vitae curriculum, on January 30, 2023, the Argentine pontiff called him to Rome and appointed him mayor of the dicker for the Bishops and President of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, promoting him to the archbishop. A year later he was ‘named’ cardinal, following the Pope from then on the last apostolic trips, namely Portugal during the World Youth Day.

Cardinal PREVOST thought

Many Cardinal Prevost interviews are not known, but there is one that has been much cited, precisely because it was 2023. When asked if he could draw a portrait of a bishop for the church of today, it was clear: “First of all, it is necessary to be“ Catholic ”: Sometimes the bishop is in danger of focusing only on local dimension. Universality of the Church. You must also know how to listen to advice and seek psychological and spiritual maturity. A fundamental element of the spoken portrait is to be close to the members of the community, starting with the priests from which the bishop is a father and brother. God. We should not give in to the temptation to live isolated, separated in a building, satisfied by a certain social level or a certain level within the church. What does Jesus Christ to know and witness our proximity to the Lord. This comes first: to communicate the beauty of faith, the beauty and joy of knowing Jesus.

And as for the future of the church and the synodal process, what did the then cardinal think? “There is a great opportunity in this continuous renewal of the Church that Pope Francis invites us to promote. On the one hand, there are bishops who openly manifest their fear because they do not understand where the church is walking. Perhaps they prefer the security of the answers already experienced in the past. I really believe that the Holy Spirit is very present in the church at this time and is impelled us to a renewal and therefore we are called the great responsibility. Process, it is not just changing some ways to do things, perhaps organizing more meetings before making a decision. Then has the word the Holy Spirit. It is certain that Leo XIV so much appreciates the work done by Father Gustavo Gutierrez, the founder of Liberation Theology, as he lives with the ultra -conservative Cardinal Muller.