The New American Pope
The ascension of Chicago-born Pope Leo XIV signals a Catholic Church whose leaders will live the Gospels and minister to the poor, refugees and migrants… but perhaps without the ebullience of Pope Francis.
The former Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, a priest for nearly 43 years, has studied in Rome and spent two decades ministering in Peru — he holds dual Peruvian and American citizenships — and lately at the Vatican vetting appointment of bishops. “I think he’s as much South American as North American and today he belongs to the world,” Fr. Michael Ryan, pastor of St. James Cathedral, told an O’.Dea High School audience on Thursday.
Wealthy conservative American Catholics, under auspices of such groups as CatholicVotes and the Napa Institute, had flocked to Rome hoping for a restoration of top-down discipline and dogma in the papacy. Instead, the first U.S.-born Pope appears more in keeping with cardinals elevated by Francis. Prevost had been a cardinal for less than two years.
By adopting the name Leo XIV, he evoked the ministry of Pope Leo XIII head of the church from 1878 to 1903. The previous Leo was a reformer who pushed back against the Gilded Age. Leo XIV believes in dialogue, the rights of workers, and opening the church to the world.
https://www.postalley.org/2025/05/09/the-new-american-pope/
= new reply since forum marked as read
