TThe election of Robert Prevost as Pope Leo XIV took most of us by surprise. More than most, after spending 12 years in Rome with him as superior of a religious community, and especially as a classmate colleague at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago from 1977 to 1982, the announcement of “Robertus Franciscus Prévost“From the logia of the Saint-Pierre basilica seemed to be something of a film.
I knew him as “bob” and I will always think of him in this way. We have studied together as seminarians and served our communities as international superiors. However, this announcement has changed everything, and now it must be counted among the vicars of Peter, of which we have thought about almost 2000 years in the textbooks that we studied while we were preparing for the priesthood.
What is the new pope bring to the church? He is a man formed by his experience in the Chicago churchIn particular the southern side – a church which has often been on the front line of the fight against racial injustice – a church which has also fought with racism in its own ranks. It is also a product of Order of Saint-Augustin– With his rich and deep spirituality and a charisma to teach and reach out to the poor. He is also trained by his studies at Catholic Theological Union, a seminar for priests of religious communities designed in a new mode after Vatican II; Whoever has not isolated seminarians from the realities of the world in a distant bucolic place. On the contrary, it was inspired by the last document of the second Vatican Council, Gaudium and species whose first immortal words resonate so prophetically today: “The joys and hopes, sorrows and anxieties of the people of this age, in particular those who are poor or in any way afflicted, it is the joys and the hopes, the seals and the anxiety of the supporters of Christ.”
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Located in the city, a student for the priesthood with religious women, men and women, clearly indicated that the vision of the church that bequeathed by the council was alive and was to be implemented.
Pope Leo XIV, however, is not only a “close” United States pope. He spent most of his life serving the International Church – in particular the world's “far”. As a missionary in northern Peru and later as general to the general of the Augustine order, he comes to this new ministry with an international sensitivity which would be difficult to find in other cardinals. While holding a diploma in higher education in canon law, his stay in Latin America taught him that the Church should not be defined only as a “perfect society” governed by canon law. It is rather the faith of the people – the “Santo Pueblo y Fiel” by Francis (Holy Faithful People) – who conferred faith to generation after generation in so many parts of the Catholic world. It is obvious that the popular religious expressions of faith, as a real inculturation of the Gospel, are an aspect of evangelization to which Pope Leo will be particularly sensitive. The Catholic theological union in Chicago, being a theological school known for its exceptional missiology teachers and its international student body, helped prepare the Pope Leo for his subsequent ministry which crossed borders and cultures.
It is also obvious that Pope Leo will follow on the path underlined at the church by Pope Francis. The problem is simple. If the church should continue to effectively proclaim the Gospel, it must be able to listen to everyone, especially those on the fringes. The way the church teaches must also be more in action than by simple words. Awareness of those who traditionally do not have a strong voice – to the poor, to women, to the large part of the church which no longer belongs to Europe or in North America, will also be a targeted concern for Pope Leo. To face sensitive questions such as LGBTQ people and weigh on politically loaded questions such as the unfair invasion of Ukraine and the fate of Israel and the Palestinians will undoubtedly be a concern on which it will focus.
As a classmate of the seminar, colleague priest and Christian colleague, I am delighted with the election of Robert Prevost as a new Saint-Fère. The proximity of the grace of God and the love of God surely manifests itself in the election of a Saint-Father whose origins are somewhere that many may seem improbable and even miraculous. Someone born in Chicago!
