Pope Francis was the hand of God on earth and Robert Francis Prevost Martínez, 69 and born in Chicago, has been … The hand of the late pontiff who has selected bishops worldwide. A kind of ‘scout’. His designation as the successor of Jorge Mario Bergoglio places an American at the head of the church. His biography transcends borders. It has served for about twenty years in Peru, a country with which it has been in contact for four decades in two different stages and where it became bishop and acquired dual nationality. Member of the Order of San Agustín, follows Francisco’s wake for his proximity to the poor and migrants. Reserved and discreet, Prevost, a missionary trained as a mathematician, has the challenge of the inclusive and reformist work of his predecessor. He has always tried to lift bridges between the north and the south. He is an American who feels devotion to Peru.
That is the US citizen does not bring Donald Trump closer. In fact, in the last message of his account in the social network X, a criticism about the deportation policy applied by the New York tycoon. Through that channel, he has also condemned the death penalty. It remains to know if it will maintain, as Francisco, the door of the church ajar to homosexuals and transgender people. In a speech in 2012 to the bishops, he regretted that the Western media would foster “the sympathy for beliefs and practices that are at odds with the Gospel.” He referred, among other groups, to “alternative families formed by same -sex couples and their adopted children.” However, he has received criticism from conservative sectors for his “lukewarm” in matters like this. In favor of her opening vocation there is a fact: the first secular woman who works in the Vatican, the secretary of the Commission for Latin America, Emilce Cuda, is one of her narrow collaborators.
Tennis fan
He was born on September 14, 1955, in Chicago. It is identified with immigrants. His father, Louis Marius Prevost, had French and Italian ancestry, and his mother, Mildred Martínez, Spanish roots. He has two brothers, Louis Martín and John Joseph. He attended his secondary studies at the Minor Seminar of the Augustinian parents. At the Villanova University (1973-1977), he obtained the degree in mathematical sciences, together with a specialization in philosophy. He also studied at the Catholic Theological Union (Chicago), where he obtained a master’s degree in Divinity (in Theology). He is a Doctor of Canon Law, with a thesis on models of participatory governments, which reveals his interest in collegiate leadership structures. Among so many books he cultivated one of his great hobbies, tennis.
Already in Rome he continued his studies in Canon Law at the Angelicum University, where he obtained the degree in 1984, and then a doctorate with mention ‘Magna Cum Laude’, with the thesis entitled ‘The role of the local prior to the order of San Agustín’ (1987). He speaks English, Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese and defends himself in German. On September 1, 1977, he entered the order of San Agustín, in Saint Louis. His priestly ordination was on June 19, 1982, in Rome. Three years later he began his great trip: he was assigned to the mission of Chulucanas, in Peru.
He was probably the hidden candidate with more options to be potato. I was on the rise in recent days. Do not awaken antipathies in any sector, perhaps because it has always maintained a very low profile. Francisco put the focus by appointing him by surprise in 2023 Head of the powerful dicastery for bishops, a position that has allowed her to have contacts on all continents and compose a wide range of friendships. It has a lot of pastoral and government experience: it has been superior to the Augustinians, the order to which it belongs, and controls the mechanisms of the curia.
-Prevost breaks the curse of US cardinals. It seemed that San Pedro’s chair was vetoed for representatives of the most powerful country in the world. It has broken that barrier. He endorses his role as a mediator among ecclesiastical currents within the US, where polarization does not stop growing and planning so many abuse scandals to minors covered by the church. At the head of the Vatican, he will face the challenge of improving relations with the White House, which, with Donald Trump as president, do not go through the best moment.
Climate change
Serene and spoke paused, Leo XIV is an American Pope. North and South. It is very close to Peru. He exercised his mission in Trujillo, Chulucanas, Iquitos and Apurímac. In 2014, Francisco appointed him Bishop in Chiclayo, a position he held until the Pontiff called him in January to be one of his closest collaborators in the Vatican. He has always said that a bishop should not be a prince sitting on a throne, but someone with the mission of helping neighbor.
Prevost had met Bergoglio in Buenos Aires, the Argentine capital. They shared their vision of the poor and migrants and agreed on the need to act urgently against climate change. In all these points the discrepancies with current tenant of the White House emerge. The first American Pope does not seem to square with the president of his country. In his first speech at the head of the Holy See, he asked the faithful for help to “build bridges of peace.”
In his figure, the effectiveness of organizational work within the Church, American pragmatism and the vicinity and pastoral sensitivity that he has forged during his long stay in Peru is merged. Of discreet and dialogue style, it maintains a reformist vision of the style driven by Francisco.
Prevost is placed in the head of the Vatican when the world lives startled by wars, climate challenges and huge and growing differences between rich and poor. It is time to transfer the domain that has shown in the management of the mechanism of the Holy See to the convulsive current geopolitical board. And also, of course, you must adapt the norms of the religious institution to the new times, as Francisco did for more than a decade. Defend as Bergoglio a poor church that walks next to the disadvantaged and that has to be in permanent reform.
