When Benedict XVI He was chosen Pope asked to return a few minutes to his great library to consult some books and find the fair words he would pronounce as the new Bishop of Rome. Prevost wrote in a blank folio, by hand, the first thing as Leo XIV would say to Christianity, while his predecessor, Francisco, preferred to go out without papers to the balcony of the square. That initial gesture of the only American who has come to occupy Pedro’s chair anticipates the prudent character of those who meditate well what he will say. Of their speeches and homilies, what will be the lines of thought of A cardinal with a solid and proper judgment.
Reservations about the blessing to gay couples
Cardinal Prevost had expressed his “reservations” on “sympathy for beliefs and practices that contradict the gospel”, but in October 2023 he was less clear about the ‘Fiducia Supplicans’ of Francisco, and emphasized the need for “national episcopal conferences to have doctrinal authority to interpret and apply said directives in their local contexts, given the cultural differences.” Therefore, he did not fully support or rejected the document for which Bergoglio opened to bless same -sex couples.
Contrary to “clerical” women
when Leo XIV was a Synod delegate about synodality, he said that “clericalize women” would not solve problems in the Catholic Church and even “It could generate new problems.” In a press conference, the then Cardinal of Chicago stressed that “the apostolic tradition is something that has been explained very clearly, especially if you want to talk about the question of the ordination of women to the priesthood.”
The importance of labor justice and the weight of the social doctrine of the Church
Already the choice of his name refers to the legacy of Pope Leo XIII, author of the ‘rerum novarum’, the encyclical in which he condenses what would be the social doctrine of the Church and that marks differences with Marxism. In any case, also in the speeches of the Purpsed Preview, its concern for work and justice or the idea of honor associated with loading and service is evident. When Francisco created him Cardinal in September 2023, he said: “Who works manually knows that to carry a weight safely it is better not to lift it too much from the ground, of that humus that leads us to the origin of the fundamental for every disciple of Christ: humility.”
The cultural references of an intellectual with a missionary spirit
It is rare that in their homilies he does not cite San Agustín de Hiponaone of the great thinkers of the church next to Saint Thomas Aquinas. But this philosopher and mathematician, who also studied law, usually mentions intellectuals, writers or poets in their writings. It feels especially questioned by that Agustina idea of community, search, path and missionary of the order, as well as his call to “be contemplative in the world.” In 2007, as a prior general, he said: “As Augustinians, we are called to live that experience of continuously seeking God.”
Focused on like believers rather than atheists
One of the first gestures that differentiate him from Bergoglio is his way of addressing believers especiallyinstead of trying to convince atheists. “There are many contexts in which the Christian faith retains an absurdity, something for weak and little intelligent people, contexts in which other securities are preferred than that she proposes, such as technology, money, success, power, power or pleasure,” is a fragment of his first homily as a potato in front of the cardinals who have chosen the head of the Catholic Church.
Rejection of Donald Trump in immigration matters
Regarding immigration, Prevost has the same approach as Bergoglio and has not hesitated to criticize American president Donald Trump. Three of the five tweets he published on the social network X as a cardinal were disapproving towards the position of the White House on immigrants and refugees. From the articles he shared, it can be intuit that he does not commune with some of the ideological positions of the new American conservatism.
An idea of faith close to that of Benedict XVI
One of Benedict XVI’s most famous phrases was one in which faith was defined as “A personal encounter with Christ”. In a homily pronounced in 2007, Prevost cited Karl Rahner, a Catholic theologian whose theology influenced the Second Vatican Council: “I would like to take a position contrary to the opinion that was previously dominant, according to which it was said that knowing something of God was a process of ‘indoctrination’, something taught from outside the person.”
Comfortable in diversity
Recognize and embrace the existence of a church in which many realities live together. «The order of the Augustinians is like the image of a mosaic, As well as the reality of the Church is today a multifaceted reality. If you look behind me, you can see a magnificent mosaic that welcomes and inspires and, like every good icon, invites its observers to pray and reflect ». Those words pronounced by Prevost as prior general exemplify that calm and conciliatory character which led him to obtain the support of glitters of different sensibilities.
Concerned about the lack of vocations
In many of his public interventions, the American cardinal who spent decades as a missionary in Peru mentions the importance of listening to young people and laity. These allusions connect with another idea that surveys many of their speeches: the lack of vocations within the Catholic Church. «Some of our brothers are in a state in which they have stopped longing for a future, a ‘offspring’, new vocations. Simply resigned to a future grassit seems that they are preparing (knowing it or not) to die, ”he said in a closing homily of the San Mateo party in 2007.
Environment
“The dominance over nature – the task that God entrusted to humanity – should not become tyrannical. It must be a relationship of reciprocity with the environment, ”he said in 2024 when he was already purple in Rome. In September 2023, at which time Bergoglio created Cardinal referred to San Francisco de Asís, who “heard the voice of God, that of the poor, that of the sick and that of nature.”
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