Leo XIV: The close relationship with Peru of the new Pope, Robert Prevost

The new Pope, Leo XIV, has a close relationship with Peru, a country in which much of his life has passed and of which he has been a citizen since 2015.

The new Pontiff is the American Augustine Robert Prevost, who has been developing pastoral work in different parts of the South American country, especially in the north.

In 2014, after many years going and coming between his native Chicago and Peruvian lands, Pope Francis appointed him bishop of Chiclayo diocesis, in the northern department of Lambayeque.

His first message as Pope this Thursday has shown the importance he grants him to his Peruvian experience.

“Greetings to all those, in particular, to my dear Diocese of Chiclayo, in Peru, where a faithful people have accompanied his bishop, has shared his faith and has given so much to remain a faithful church of Jesus Christ,” he said in Spanish, heading to the crowd gathered in the Plaza San Pedro del Vaticano.

The president of Peru, Dina Boluarte, said: “Her choice full of pride and hope to our nation, which was her home, her mission and her faith.”

He was born on September 14, 1955 in Chicago (Illinois, United States), son of Louis Marius Prevost, of French and Italian ancestry, and Mildred Martínez, of Spanish descent.

Graduated in mathematics from the University of Villanova, in Pennsylvania, where he also studied philosophy, Prevost cast his votes in August 1981 and ordered priest the following year.

After completing his training in theology in Chicago, and in Canon Law in Rome, and while preparing his doctoral thesis, he was first sent to Peru.

He reached the Mission of the Augustinians in Chulucanas, in the Peruvian department of Piura, in 1985.

And the following year he joined the mission of Trujillo as director of the common training project for the Augustinian candidates of the Vicariates of Chulucanas, Iquitos and Apurímac.

They were the first contacts with a country that would mark his life.

In Trujillo he held different ecclesiastical positions, before returning to his native Chicago to assume a position of prior provincial.

But in 2014 Pope Francis appointed him Bishop of Chiclayo, a position he assumed in 2015. Then he said that, as a sign of commitment to the country, he would request Peruvian nationality.

The current concordat between the Holy See and the Republic of Peru demands that the bishops be Peruvian citizens.

In 2015, as Peruvian, Prevost was consecrated Bishop of Chiclayo.

José Luis Pérez Guadalupe, Peruvian Interior Minister between 2015 and 2016, to whom it was appropriate to sign the nationalization of Premost and with which he met on numerous occasions, he told BBC Mundo that he remembers him as “a very attentive and very reflective man, who listened more than he spoke.”

Pérez Guadalupe is also Teologo and criminologist, and has worked as an advisor to the Peruvian bishops, so he often treated Prevost.

“We talked about pastoral issues and one of the concerns was that the Catholic Church was losing faithful in Latin America due to the increase in Christian churches,” he explained to BBC Mundo. “He was of the opinion that the Church had to be closer to the faithful.”

Another issue that had to discuss was that of sexual abuse of minors within the Church, particularly thorny in Peru, where the influential community of the sodalicio accumulated complaints for years, until Pope Francis ordered to dissolve it in one of the last decisions of his pontificate.

“The Peruvian Episcopal Conference line was marked by Pope Francis and in that line was also Prevost,” recalls Martínez Guadalupe.

However, Prevost was accused of not investigating the complaints of three alleged victims of sexual abuse in the Diocese of Chiclayo, something that both the diocese and its supporters in Peru emphatically deny.

Martínez Guadalupe said that, although he remained especially focused on pastoral issues, Bishop Prevost “was very attentive to the reality of Peru.”

In 2023, when Peru lived a wave of protests after the fall of the then President Pedro Castillo who resulted in dozens of dead, the then Bishop Prevost told the Peruvian media that he felt “much sadness and much pain” and said that he had asked Pope Francis to prolong his stay in the country.

“I have told the Holy Father; in a sense it is not the best time to leave the country. I want to continue accompanying the people,” he said then.

Reverend Fidel Purisaca Vigil, communication director of the Diocese of Chiclayo in the Premost stage, told AP that as a bishop he always had breakfast and prayed with other bags.

“It didn’t matter how many problems were, he always maintained good humor and joy,” Purisaca told the agency in an email.

As Bishop of Chiclayo, Huancayo also toured, in the center of Peru.

“It was quite close to us,” the city archbishop, Luis Alberto Huamán, told the Peruvian RPP chain, also highlighting his “transparency.”

“For his way of being as a bishop, it was noted that he loved Peru,” added Monsignor Huamán.

In his time in Chiclayo, Prevost prioritized the proximity to the faithful and bring the institution closer to them, those who have spoken publicly about their figure coincide.

His successor as bishop, Edison Farfán Cordova, referred to the new Pope as “our brother” and said of him that “he was very marked by Chiclayo, which is rich because he has a popular religiosity.”

“We are also going to celebrate properly, because the Pope knows him. Our cathedral will be full these days in gratitude for his appointment,” Farfán said.

Veronique Lecaros, head of the Department of Theology of the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, told BBC Mundo that “Prevost created in Chiclayo a Committee of Integral Ecology and had appointed a woman to be in charge”, which reveals the importance granted by the new Pope to the defense of the environment.

Also, says Lecaros, “he advocated that the parishes have advice to create a much more shared form of governance with the laity.”

In 2018 Prevost was elected vice president of the Peruvian Episcopal Conference and in 2023 Pope Francis called him to Rome to assume as a prefect of the Dicasteria for the bishops and president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.

That was the end of his stage in Peru, but not of his ties with a country that, as he has made clear in his pimer message as Pope, carries in his heart.

*With additional reports by Ayelén Oliva.

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