There’s Never Been a Pope From the U.S. Could This Cardinal Change That?

[ad_1] For betting sorts, the standard knowledge says to not put your cash on a pope from america.

But one American some Vatican watchers say may scrape collectively sufficient votes is Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, 69, a Chicago-born polyglot who's seen as a churchman who transcends borders. He served for twenty years in Peru, the place he grew to become a bishop and a naturalized citizen, then rose to guide his worldwide non secular order. He now holds one of the influential Vatican posts.

As ideological camps tussle over whether or not to proceed Pope Francis’ inclusive agenda or return to a conservative doctrinal path, supporters of Cardinal Prevost pitch him as a balanced various among the many papabili, as doubtless candidates for the papacy are identified.

The Rev. Michele Falcone, 46, a priest within the Order of St. Augustine beforehand led by Cardinal Prevost, described his mentor and good friend because the “dignified center of the highway.”

The cardinal resembles Francis in his dedication to the poor and migrants and to assembly folks the place they're. He advised the Vatican’s official information web site final yr that “the bishop will not be purported to be a bit of prince sitting in his kingdom.” Fairly, he mentioned, a church chief is “referred to as authentically to be humble, to be near the folks he serves, to stroll with them, to endure with them.”

Cardinal Prevost, appointed by Francis in 2023 to run the Vatican workplace that selects and manages bishops globally, has spent a lot of his life outdoors america. Ordained in 1982 at age 27, he acquired a doctorate in canon legislation on the Pontifical College of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome. In Peru, he was a missionary, parish priest, instructor and bishop. Because the Augustinians’ chief, he visited orders all over the world, and speaks Spanish and Italian.

The cardinal understands that the middle of the Roman Catholic Church “will not be in america or the North Atlantic,” mentioned Raúl E. Zegarra, assistant professor of Catholic theological research at Harvard Divinity College.

Given Cardinal Prevost’s worldwide expertise, information of america and work contained in the Vatican hierarchy, mentioned Marco Politi, a veteran Vatican analyst in Rome, “if he weren't American, this is able to make him mechanically a papabile, definitely.”

Cardinal Prevost, who is commonly described as reserved and discreet, would depart stylistically from Francis, who till his demise final month drew roaring crowds and stopped to bless a child in opposition to his docs’ recommendation.

“He doesn't have excesses,” Father Falcone mentioned of Cardinal Prevost. “Blessing infants, sure. Taking them in his arms, no.”

Supporters of the cardinal mentioned they anticipated him to proceed the consultative course of began by Francis to ask lay folks to satisfy with bishops.

“I do know that Bob believes that everyone has a proper and an obligation to specific themselves within the church,” mentioned the Rev. Mark R. Francis, a former classmate of Cardinal Prevost who runs the American arm of the Clerics of St. Viator, a non secular order.

Whereas Francis mentioned, “Who am I to guage?” when requested about homosexual clerics, Cardinal Prevost has expressed much less welcoming views to L.G.B.T.Q. folks.

In a 2012 tackle to bishops, he lamented that Western information media and fashionable tradition fostered “sympathy for beliefs and practices which might be at odds with the gospel.” He cited the “gay way of life” and “various households comprised of same-sex companions and their adopted youngsters.”

As bishop in Chiclayo, a metropolis in northwestern Peru, he opposed a authorities plan so as to add teachings on gender in faculties. “The promotion of gender ideology is complicated, as a result of it seeks to create genders that don’t exist,” he advised native information media.

Whereas praised in Peru for supporting Venezuelan immigrants and visiting far-flung communities, the cardinal has drawn criticism over his dealings with monks accused of sexual abuse.

One girl in Chiclayo who mentioned she and two different girls have been sexually abused by two monks as ladies lengthy earlier than Cardinal Prevost was bishop accused him of mishandling an investigation and of not stopping one of many monks from celebrating Mass.

The diocese of Chiclayo mentioned Cardinal Prevost opened an investigation that the Vatican closed. After a brand new bishop arrived, the investigation was reopened. Supporters of Cardinal Prevost say he's the goal of a smear marketing campaign by members of a Peruvian-based Catholic motion that Francis disbanded.

In Chicago, activists say his workplace didn't warn a close-by Catholic faculty {that a} priest who church leaders decided had abused younger boys for years was sheltered in a monastery close by beginning in 2000. As head of the Midwestern order of Augustinians on the time, Cardinal Prevost would have authorised the priest’s transfer to the monastery.

Makes an attempt to succeed in Cardinal Prevost for this text weren't profitable.

Associates of the cardinal say he speaks fastidiously.

In contrast with Francis, his language is “extra serene,” mentioned the Rev. Alejandro Ethical Antón, Cardinal Prevost’s successor as Augustinian chief.