On this picture launched by the Diocese of Chulucanas, Bishop Robert Prevost leads an anniversary celebration of the Diocese in Chulucanas, Peru, Monday, Aug. 12, 2024. (Diocese of Chulucanas through AP)
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis introduced Robert Prevost to the Vatican in 2023 because the highly effective head of the workplace that vets bishop nominations, some of the necessary jobs within the Catholic Church. On Thursday, he ascended to turn out to be Pope Leo XIV — the primary American pontiff.
Prevost, 69, needed to overcome the taboo in opposition to a U.S. pope, given the geopolitical energy already wielded by the USA within the secular sphere.
The Chicago native can also be a Peruvian citizen and lived for years in Peru, first as a missionary after which as an archbishop.
He had prominence going into the conclave that few different cardinals have.
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Prevost was twice elected prior normal, or prime chief, of the Augustinians, the thirteenth century non secular order based by St. Augustine. Francis clearly had a watch on him for years, shifting him from the Augustinian management again to Peru in 2014 to function the administrator and later archbishop of Chiclayo.
He remained in that place, buying Peruvian citizenship in 2015, till Francis introduced him to Rome in 2023 to imagine the presidency of the Pontifical Fee for Latin America. In that job he would have saved in common contact with the Catholic hierarchy within the a part of the world that counts essentially the most Catholics.
Ever since arriving in Rome, Prevost has saved a low public profile, however he was well-known to the lads who rely.
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Considerably, he presided over some of the revolutionary reforms Francis made, when he added three girls to the voting bloc that decides which bishop nominations to ahead to the pope. In early 2025, Francis once more confirmed his esteem by appointing Prevost to essentially the most senior rank of cardinals.
The bells of the cathedral in Peru’s capital of Lima tolled after Prevost’s election was introduced. Folks exterior the church expressed their want for a papal go to at one level.
“For us Peruvians, it’s a supply of delight that this can be a pope who represents our nation,” mentioned elementary faculty trainer Isabel Panez, who occurred to be close to the cathedral when the information was introduced. “We want him to go to us right here in Peru.”
The Rev. Fidel Purisaca Vigil, the communications director for Prevost’s outdated diocese in Chiclayo, remembers the cardinal rising every day and having breakfast along with his fellow monks after saying his prayers.
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“Irrespective of what number of issues he has, he maintains good humor and pleasure,” Purisaca mentioned in an e mail. /dl