Robert Prevost, a diplomatic pragmatist – Diepresse.com
With Robert Prevost, the first time has become an American Pope. He is Pope Leo XIV. The religious is a connoisseur of the World Church and has so far led the Vatican Authority for Bishops.
The 133 cardinals who are entitled to vote have agreed on him: Robert Francis Prevost should lead the Catholic Church into the future as Pope Leo XIV. At least two thirds of the cardinals voted for him in the fourth ballot on Donenerstag afternoon. He was then presented to the public on the Loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica.
For a long time, a Pope from the most powerful country in the earth was taboo. But with Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, the United States now had a real chance of the Papal throne. And actually the cardinals agreed on Prevost. The 69-year-old is at least at home in the World Church and in the Roman Curia as well as in the country of his birth.
Under Pope Francis, the order man headed the Vatican Authority for Bishops, the HR department of the Catholic World Church. In this function, he has been responsible for bishop’s names worldwide in the past two years. The so-called AD Limina visits to bishops of the World Church also run through his former authority. Bishops’ conferences regularly come to the Vatican for reporting on their local church. This made Prevost one of the best -known faces in the Cardinal College – which was never so scattered over the world and hardly knew himself in front of the conclave.
« /> Cardinal Prevost in the days of the conclave in the Vatican. APA / AFP / Filippo Monteforte
International experience
The church man, born in Chicago in September 1955, is considered a diplomatic, pragmatic and estimated in progressive and conservative church representatives, as well as with his employees. He did not just gain international experience through his last position in the curia. In 1977 he joined the Augustinian order and was sent to Rome for studying canal law.
Then his order sent him to Peru as a missionary. Until the early 2000s, he switched between different positions in the USA and Peru – mainly worked in the training of young religious men. He speaks Spanish and Italian with a slight English accent.
In 2002 the Augustinian order chose him to be his global director. Prevost went to Rome for two terms. In the general curiad of his order near the Vatican, the American has lived since his renewed return to the eternal city in early 2023. Previously, he headed the diocese of Chiclayo in Peru, was the second Vice President of the Peruvian Bishops’ Conference.
In the South American country, Pope Francis met him, who finally brought him into the Vatican as head of the bishop’s authority and made him a cardinal. At the same time, Prevost was also President of the Papal Commission for Latin America.
Only in November in Vienna
In Austria, the cardinal was last last November. In Vienna, Prevost celebrated the festival service for the 675th consecration day of the Augustinian Church. His episcopal motto has been taken from a sermon by St. Augustine: « Nos Multi in Illo Uno Unum » (German: « In this one (Christ) we are many one »).
In the future, the American will not only lead a worldwide organized order, but also the entire Catholic Church with its 1.4 billion members. He should continue his predecessor in the direction of a church with more participation of all believers. Francis had extended this path again shortly before his death by scheduling a « church general assembly » for October 2028. The next religious in the papal office would probably also want to continue the modest and close -to -human style of Francis. (APA/KAP)
