“For us it is like winning a World Cup”: the effusive reaction of Peruvians in the Vatican after Robert Prevost’s appointment

Robert Prevost, now Leo XIV, was not among the great bets to be the new Pope, so when his name rumbled for the speakers of San Pedro Square, for many joy joined the curiosity to know who it was.

This is not the case of Guadalupe Tolentino.

“We didn’t know what the new Pope would be, but of course all Peruvians know who he is, we have seen it,” he tells us.

With his flag of Peru in his hands, this Lima says “with a heart full of emotions” that, when the late Pope Francis visited his country, “the first place he was was Chiclayo.”

And it is there, in Chiclayo, a coastal city of Lambayeque, in northern Peru, Leo XIV was a bishop from 2014 to 2023.

“People were traveling there to see it. I wanted to, but I couldn’t because it involved money and time, but we know perfectly who it is and his work there,” says Guadalupe.

But in addition, Robert Prevost, born in the United States, spent more than 40 years in Peru and, in fact, has Peruvian nationality since 2015.

“We had no idea what he would be, there were other favorite cardinals. But now, we definitely hope that this new Pope exceeds the expectations we have and that it is a good successor of Francisco,” he adds.

Tolentino has been in Rome for just one year.

He came here in search of new opportunities and, while waiting for his title as a teacher to be validated, he works in the house of a family.

But what I did not expect was, as it tells me, “having had the opportunity to witness this historical moment” for Peru.

“As a child I always said that I would see this white smoke closely. And look, then, I had the joy of witnessing it at 34. I thank life for it.”

Together with Guadalupe is his Amber sister, who holds an extraordinary edition of The Roman observerA diary del Vaticano, donde himself Lee “Robert Francisco Prevost that his name put on the lion 14” y una gran photo del Nuevo take the Pont.

Both have been on Wednesday, May 7, the day that the conclave began, stationed in the Plaza de San Pedro waiting for a white smoking.

The news of a Peruvian Pope, tells us, launches a great message.

“This, for Peru and for me it is a message of hope. No one was expected. And, you know? Peru is in a very complicated, very critical situation. And I think this is a message of hope for all.”

Because of that same critical situation that he recounts, “for extortion and because professionals are not supported,” she also graduated from international business, also migrated to Rome just four months ago in search of a better life.

Leo XIV is the first pontiff from North America and also the first with American or Peruvian citizenship.

During his years in Peru, he served as pastor, a seminary teacher, prefect of studies, ecclesiastical judge and member of the Advisory Council of the Diocese of Trujillo, in addition to leading the Augustinian Seminar in that city for a decade. The Peruvian Episcopal Conference (CEP) also integrated between 2018 and 2023.

“We are happy and overwhelmed because we are now famous for a moment,” he tells us in the Plaza de San Pedro Rafael Aguilar, also Peruvian and dressed in his rojiblanca flag tied around his neck.

Beside him, Ela Fernández, also with the flag on, tells us that the news “implies a lot of faith for us, a lot of hope, because Prevost did a great work in Peru and will continue with that worldwide.”

Both speak to us excited because “as Peruvians and Catholics, this is a recognition of a country that is not that it has a great time, we always go from pulls in pulls.”

During part of his first speech as Pope, Robert Prevost has spoken in Spanish.

“A greeting 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.”

This, in addition to being something new, has touched Rafael’s heart.

“He has dedicated a few words, some small lines, words with a very Peruvian Castilian. And to dedicate those lines, that for us was as if we had won a world championship,” Rafael says with emotion.

Rafael and Ela expressly came to Italy for the days of the conclave, to see the White Fumata, “a moment when we all join, we leave our selfishness and hope that there is a better world.”

“Then we will go out, we will continue to be the same. But these little moments are the ones that we have to privilege,” Rafael emphasizes.

Even so, he is aware of the limitations of the Church.

He tells us that he is divorced. And this could be a minor detail, but to those people who divorced and then married again, they were not allowed to commune, one of the sacraments within Catholicism.

“When I got married, I knew the conditions. The Vatican will have time to join [a los nuevos tiempo]but slowly. It is very difficult for the Catholic Church to change. But God loves everyone equally, whether divorced or not, heterosexuals or gays, have money or not, “he says.

Between the joy and emotion for the appointment of this new Pope, people also ask if Francisco will follow. A good symptom is that he had a few words for him in his speech.

Although this, in part, will be a minor challenge for Leo XIV.

The church with which it is located is, like the worldwide scene itself, divided into more reformist and more conservative currents, a strip and loosen of which, it seems, Prevost is now hinge.

An issue that marked both the papacy of Benedict XVI and Francisco’s was the issue of abuse to minors within the Church. And this is to anticipate the new pontiff.

In fact, 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.

This is a thorny issue particularly in Peru, where the influential community of the Sodalicio accumulated complaints against him for years, until Pope Francis ordered to dissolve it in one of the last decisions of his pontificate.

Thus, in this new stage as the church hierarchy, this will be one of its main challenges.

But it is not even on the 1st of Leon XIV’s papacy.

And the believers who approached the Plaza San Pedro, such as Guadalupe, Ambar, Ela and Rafael, celebrate a new Pope to which they see close and that, to their surprise and joy, he managed to make Peru on the mouth of everyone.

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