Cardinal Robert Prevost could be the first American to become the head of the Catholic Church, but his surprising elections for the cardinals of the world like Pope Leo 14 probably had less to do with his birthplace than with his old job.
Prevost, an unknown relative in the world scenario, spent two decades as a missionary in Peru and became an important authority of the Vatican and Cardinal only in 2023.
His first designation as Bishop was in Chiclayo, in the North -ovest of Peru, where he served from 2015 to 2023.
For the 133 cardinals gathered in the conclave in the Sistine Chapel to choose the successor of Pope Francis, an Argentine and the first pontiff of the Americas, this must not have been a small detail.
“For us, he is the second Latin American Pope,” said Fernando Morales-De Cruz, an activist Guatemalateco of human rights, in Reuters. Prevost has a double nationality, American and Peruvian.
But unlike Francisco, who was elected Pope in 2013 after serving for decades as a local bishop and had no experience in the Vatican, Predost was not a complete stranger.
He has spent the last two years lead the dicking of the powerful Vatican who helps to decide which priests are appointed Catholic bishops all over the world. He also participated in two meetings of global bishops in the Vatican organized by Francisco in 2023 and 2024.
With his combined experiences, he becomes a dad with an initial advantage in some of the big questions faced by 1.4 billion of members and is already well known to many cardinals.
Given the confidentiality of the conclave, it will not be known much, at least for now, on the thought of the votes of the cardinals and how the voting rounds have been until the moment they made their choice on Thursday.
But some analysts have some theories, including the way prevost has overcome what has been considered an unlikely proposal so far: an American cardinal who becomes a pope.
“Before the Conclave, the US cardinals thought that an American passport was an obstacle,” said Michael Sean Winters, an American commentator who follows the Vatican closely.
But the cardinals decided that the nationality of Prevost, given his experience in Latin America, “was not an insurmountable barrier,” he said.
“What they wanted was someone known among other cardinals and also committed to continuing Francisco’s reforms,” said Winters. “And more than any other papal candidate, Prevost had both.”
In the second mandate of Donald Trump in the United States, the cardinals could also have seen a real value for the first time to raise another American as Pope.
Francisco was an incisive critic of Trump, stating at the beginning of this year that the president of the president to expel millions of migrants in the United States was a “misfortune”.
“As for the reason why the cardinals have chosen (Prevost), I must ask me whether to raise a” different type of American leader “was not part of the discernment process,” said Natalia Imperator-Lee, an American academic and Catholic expert at the University of New York in Manhattan.
Quickly conclave
Going to Conclavi Wednesday, two other cardinals were seen as the main favorites: Italian Pietro Parolin and Filipino Luis Antonio Tagle.
The cardinals vote for Conclavi once on the first day and four times in the following days.
When the white smoke came out of a fireplace at the top of the Sistine Chapel at 18:08 on Thursday, reporting the election of the new Pope, many who saw they thought that it should be a word or tagle.
The time of smoke meant that the new pope was probably elected to the fourth vote of the Conclave, a rapid result. Francisco was elected to the fifth vote of the 2013 Conclave.
In 1978, eight banknotes taken to elect Pope Giovanni Paul 2 °. As Prevost, the Polish cardinal Karol Wojtyla was not seen as one of the main candidates for the conclave that made him pontiff.
Prepared speech
A cardinal – who was unable to participate in this conclave because he was more than 80 years old – said that, based on his experience in previous conclusions, a consent to the third vote was probably arisen which, in the following round, Prevost would have reached the majority of two thirds necessary to be elected.
The third vote would have been the second held on Thursday morning, before the cardinals stop for lunch.
The Cardinal Emeritus, who spoke to anonymous conditions to discuss the secret process, suggested that Predost may have taken some time for lunch to choose his papal name and start writing his first speech as the church leader.
When Pope Lion appeared for the first time on the balcony of the Basilica of San Pietro, about 70 minutes after his election, to greet tens of thousands of people in the square below, he spoke from a written text.
None of the last four popes used a text written in his first speech on the balcony. In 2013, Francis the first word was simply “good evening” (good night) and spoke of improvisation for a few minutes.
Asked by an Italian channel journalist 4 two days before the conclave if he had been elected Pope, Predost replied: “Everything is in the hands of the Holy Spirit”.
The journalist then mentioned the way in which the cardinal had a series of experiences he could offer as Pope, he was born in the United States, lived in Peru and well -known bishops around the world because of his work in the Vatican.
“All this is true, yes,” said Prevost.
Source: Terra
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