Analysis
Pope Leo: The other face of the United States
He is, in a sense, the least American of the U.S. cardinals: he lived in Latin America for 20 years and served as bishop of Chiclayo in Peru before Pope Francis recalled him to Rome in 2023 as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops.
White smoke: U.S. cardinal and Augustinian friar Robert Francis Prevost is the 267th pope of the Roman Catholic Church. The announcement was made on Thursday, May 8, shortly after 7 p.m. from the loggia of St Peter’s by the protodeacon, Cardinal Dominique Mamberti, with the canonical Habemus papam. The new pontiff has chosen the name Leo XIV, unused for more than a century and – if the name also translates into a program – hinting at a particular focus on social issues.
The last pope to bear that name, Leo XIII, took office at the end of the 19th century and issued Rerum Novarum, the first social encyclical. “Peace be with you all,” were Leo XIV’s first words. “This is the first greeting of the risen Christ, the Good Shepherd who gave his life for God’s flock. I too would like this greeting of peace to enter your hearts, to reach your families, all people, wherever they are, every nation, the whole earth. Peace be with you! A peace that bears no arms and is disarming, one that is humble and persevering. God loves us all, unconditionally,” he added, reading from a prepared text.
This was itself unprecedented. Before John Paul II, new popes did not make any speech, limiting themselves to blessing the crowd. Wojtyła introduced the practice of speaking a few impromptu words, a tradition continued by Ratzinger and Bergoglio. Prevost, visibly feeling the emotion of the moment, instead read the text he had prepared, coming back to the theme of peace: “Let us build bridges through dialogue and mutual encounters so that we may be one people in peace.”
President Sergio Mattarella highlighted the new pope’s focus on peace in his message of congratulations. Like Putin, Zelensky and Netanyahu, Trump also immediately congratulated the new pope, on his Truth Social platform: “Congratulations to Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, who was just named Pope. It is such an honor to realize that he is the first American Pope. What excitement, and what a great honor for our country.” Whether he also appreciated the pontiff’s talk of “peace” and “bridges” is another matter; Leo XIV certainly does not belong to the conservative wing of the U.S. episcopate. Only months ago, he criticized Vice President Vance for misleadingly quoting St. Augustine – a saint whose works Prevost is intimately familiar with – to justify a plan to deport migrants from the United States.
He is, in a sense, the least American of the U.S. cardinals: he lived in Latin America for 20 years and served as bishop of Chiclayo in Peru before Pope Francis recalled him to Rome in 2023 as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops. It was no accident that, just before his final blessing on Thursday, he also greeted the faithful in Spanish, addressing Peruvians in particular (while not doing the same in English for the U.S. audience).
His first public appearance differed sharply from Bergoglio’s. Prevost wore traditional vestments – in the same style used by Benedict XVI – rather than the simple white cassock in which Francis first appeared on the balcony. His address, considerably longer than usual, lacked the Argentine pope’s easy congeniality. Yet towards the end one could read hints of a program intended to keep the Church on the course charted in recent years: “We want to be a synodal Church,” he said, “a Church on the move, a Church that always seeks peace and charity, one that, above all, strives to draw near to those who are suffering.”
These are probably the reasons that led the cardinals to elect Prevost: a pope who will keep the processes begun by Francis going and continue along the same line as his papacy, but without sudden accelerations and apparently at a more moderate pace. Cardinal Pietro Parolin, secretary of state under Francis and top favorite on the eve of the conclave, fit much of that profile; however, he entirely lacked Prevost’s pastoral experience, having worked almost exclusively in Vatican diplomacy.
The election unfolded quickly, with the pope chosen on the fourth ballot, even though Prevost – while often mentioned – was not among the very top favorites. In the past hundred years, only Eugenio Pacelli (Pius XII) was chosen faster, on the third ballot. Like Prevost, Luciani (John Paul I, who died after only 33 days) and Ratzinger (Benedict XVI) were elected on the fourth. All the others required more rounds of voting. The speed signals substantial agreement among the conclave, driven by the desire to not present an image of a divided Church before the world.
On Friday, the new pope celebrated Mass in the Sistine Chapel with the cardinals. On Sunday he made his first regular public appearance as pope, to lead the Regina Coeli prayer at noon in St Peter’s Square.
Originally published at https://ilmanifesto.it/laltra-faccia-degli-usa on 2025-05-09