In retrospect, Pope Leo XIV had everything for him.
The new Pope, whose choice on the second day of the conclave surprised the Roman Catholic world, seemed to be two places at once. He was born and educated in the United States, a vital country for church finances. But he was also a missionary, pastor and bishop in Peru who directed the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, a part of the world where the Church is vibrant.
He had the good seal of the papal cleaning of Pope Francis, his predecessor, which put him in one of the main works of the Roman Catholic Church. There, as Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, directed the office that helped the Pope choose the bishops and, therefore, to determine the future of the Church.
He knew, and was one of the voters cardinals in the powerful church desktop Cracy, but reassured the liberals with their strong support for the greatest possibly greater change of Francis, who sought to make church decision making more.
In uncertain times, he directed a global religious group, the order of St. Augustine, which required a sophisticated understanding of the world. His deep theological formation may have reassured conservatives by doctrine. At 69, the new Pope is the ideal age for a papal candidate.
The great strike against him was his American nationality, a decisive factor in decades fits because he was like bees too aligned with the world’s dominant power. But in a world order that has changed significantly and in a church that sees more and more beyond nationality, that team was not to matter to the 133 cardinals who vote in the Sistine Chapel.
“He checked all the boxes,” said John Allen, a veteran Vatican analyst and author of the book “Conclave.” He added: “Geography and nationality ceased to be a voting problem.”
American Catholics throughout the political spectrum are citing Leo’s name choice as a sign that can advance their interests.
“When choosing Leo XIV’s name, he shows that he is committed to the social education of the Church,” said Thomas J. Reese, a Jesuit priest and veteran Vatican analyst.
The most conservative Catholics see a different implication. “He takes his name from a Pope who firmly faced the negative culture of moral relativism,” said Ashley McGuire, the main member of the Catholic Association.
After a boxes of years of annoying the Church, the Cardinals College apparently wanted to continue moving in the direction of Francisco but with less deviations and accidents. They chose a soft manpost, in a moderate tone but resolved in their defense of the doctrine, one with deep novel experience and chops of government.
“We have to look together how to be a missionary church, build bridges, dialogue, always open to practice with open arms for all, like this place, open to all, to all those who need our character, dialogue or love,” love, “love, love,” love, “love, love,” love, “love,” love, love, “love,” love, “love,” love, “love,” love, “basilica in its basil. as the love of the basilica as the Thursday leaders.
Only a few hours after his choice, it was impossible to know how Leo would rule. But his first words, and the name pays attention, great some clues. The Vatican said that his name echoed the previous Leo, a Pope at the end of the 19th century that helped establish the tradition of the Catholic Social Justice of the Church. Hello, it also verified Francis, saying: “Thank you, Pope Francis!” and causing a burst of applause of the crowd below.
He said the word “synodality”, which means little or nothing for the secular ears, but that within the Church spoke a lot about his intention to carry out Francis’s vision for a church that governs less than high in Rome than Bishopoful, faithful, faithful, faithful, faithful, faithful to make the great decisions.
And he talked about peace and bee near those who suffered, reflecting his pastoral sense, but he also invested the Vatican tradition when he appeared on the balcony in a clothing that Francis had thrown.
While the Americans of the crowd rejoiced for the appointment of one of theirs: “Use! UU.!” Some sang, and received congratulations from the Italians who seemed stunned by the unknown face on the balcony, Francis’s supporters expressed a sigh of relief.
The favorite to happen to Francis had been the Secretary of State of the Church, Pietro Parolin, who, although experienced diplomatic with a distinguished career in the Church, had no pastoral experience. In the weeks and days before the conclave, the critics of the cardinal parolin, including the Italian cardinals, spoke admirer or candidates, including Cardinal Prevost, which suggests that the support of Cardinal Parolin was softer than expected.
But when the white smoke left the fireplace on the Sistine Chapel on the second day of voting, many liberals worried that that the voters had joined around Cardinal Parolin, a bureaucrat who feared the fresh air all fresh air.
Cardinal Parolin emerged on the balcony, but is still wrapped in the cardinal. He smiled easily, a background figure to a new Pope that the liberals believed would protect Francisco’s legacy.
In October 2024, Cardinal Previous looked very like Francis when he told Vatican News that a “bishop is not supposed to be a small prince sitting in her kingdom, but is authentically called Witthem, people of the people’s theme, to the theme of people.
Vatican analysts hope Leo will be clearly defended for migrants, the poor and those exploited by great powers, perhaps less provocative than Francis. It is seen as pastoral, and thus open to listen to groups of a wide variety of Catholics. But, at least for now, it is less than chances of making changes in the teaching of the Church on issues such as the ordination of women such as Dacons, birth control and the state of homosexual men in the Church.
Alberto Melloni, a church historian, said that, although Leo was clearly in Francis’s mold in his vision of a church approaching people and governed more downwards, in hottest social issues, “he kept his free.”
Not quite. In a speech of 2012 to the bishops, he regretted that the Western media and popular culture would encourage “sympathy for beliefs and practices that disagree with the Gospel.” He cited the “homosexual lifestyle” and “alternative families composed of same -sex partners and their adopted children.”
But as Francis showed, people change when they become a potato: he was considered a conservative cardinal in his native Argentina.
In a 2023 interview with Catholic News Service, Leo, then a cardinal, emphasized that the clergy respond to the problems in their parishes reflecting on their oath of “living and working in communion with the Holy Father.”
That is now he.
Elizabeth days” Elisabetta Povledo and Emma Bubola Contributed reports.