Robert Francis Prevost was elected the 267th pope of the Roman Catholic Church on Thursday and took the title Pope Leo XIV, turning into the primary pope from america and defying the standard knowledge earlier than the conclave that any American can be an extended shot to develop into pontiff.
A puff of white smoke from a chimney above the Sistine Chapel signaled that the cardinals sequestered inside for 2 days had elected a brand new chief the world’s 1.4 billion Roman Catholics. As pope, Leo XIV will confront troublesome choices in regards to the church’s path, mainly whether or not to proceed the agenda of his predecessor, Pope Francis, who championed better inclusion and openness to vary till his demise final month, or forge a special path.
The cardinals reached their resolution after being in conclave for just a little greater than 24 hours, and after a number of rounds of voting. The group of 133 cardinals, probably the most ever to collect in a conclave, included many who had been appointed by Francis and a few who didn’t know each other. That had made reaching a fast consensus a severe problem, given the broad group of contenders and the splits amongst them about the way forward for the church.
Regardless of his American roots, Cardinal Prevost, a 69-year-old, Chicago-born polyglot, is seen as a churchman who transcends borders. He served for twenty years in Peru, the place he turned a bishop and a naturalized citizen, then rose to steer his worldwide spiritual order. Till the demise of Francis, he held one of the crucial influential Vatican posts, operating the workplace that selects and manages bishops globally.
A member of the Order of St. Augustine, he resembles Francis in his dedication to the poor and migrants and to assembly individuals the place they’re. He advised the Vatican’s official information web site final 12 months that “the bishop isn’t purported to be just a little prince sitting in his kingdom.”
He has spent a lot of his life outdoors america. Ordained in 1982 at age 27, he acquired a doctorate in canon regulation on the Pontifical College of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome. In Peru, he was a missionary, parish priest, trainer and bishop. Because the Augustinians’ chief, he visited orders all over the world, and speaks Spanish and Italian.
Typically described as reserved and discreet, he would depart stylistically from Francis as pope. Supporters consider he’ll almost definitely proceed the consultative course of began by Francis to ask lay individuals to fulfill with bishops.
It’s unclear whether or not he shall be as open to homosexual, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Catholics as Francis was. Though he has not mentioned a lot lately, in a 2012 handle to bishops, he lamented that Western information media and in style tradition fostered “sympathy for beliefs and practices which are at odds with the Gospel.” He cited the “gay way of life” and “various households comprised of same-sex companions and their adopted youngsters.”
He, like many different cardinals, has drawn criticism over his dealings with clergymen accused of sexual abuse.
