VATICAN CITY — In Italy he’s generally known as the Latin Yankee.
Robert Francis Prevost, anointed Pope Leo XIV on Thursday, is the primary American pontiff within the Catholic Church’s historical past.
However Vatican observers will shortly inform you that he’s way more than that: a sophisticated clergyman as Latin American as he’s North American, and a possible bridge builder between two more and more distant Catholic worlds.
“He’s like a twin passport holder, he’s the right pontiff for the current second,” mentioned Miles Pattenden, papal historian and lecturer at Oxford College.
Prevost’s predecessor Pope Francis, née Jorge Mario Bergoglio, wrestled with widening divisions in a Church break up alongside geographical and ideological strains. Traditionalists who continued to see the establishment as a basically Western one have been pitted in opposition to the thousands and thousands of latest Catholics being minted exterior the Outdated Continent — in addition to progressives who ached for the Church to adapt to the trendy, liberal world.
Whereas he made some headway, Francis’ efforts to please everybody wrought theological chaos and cultivated a fierce conservative opposition, in addition to resistance from Vatican veterans who disliked his reformist agenda.
Prevost — at the least in concept — may very well be the compromise candidate the Church wants.
Whereas born in Chicago, the 69-year-old has spent a lot of his clerical life overseas as a missionary and trainer in Peru and speaks French, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian in addition to English. However he’s additionally acquainted with the cutthroat world of Vatican politics and protocol, serving as president of the Pontifical Fee for Latin America in Vatican Metropolis, the place he was additionally in command of appointing new bishops.
Throughout the pre-conclave lobbying classes, the Latin American cardinals noticed him as certainly one of their very own, and it’s probably the Europeans and Individuals agreed to go for him as a compromise candidate after much-hyped frontrunner Pietro Parolin, the Holy See’s prime diplomat, didn’t safe the required ballots, one Vatican insider informed POLITICO.
The velocity with which this relative unknown was elected pope hints at his success in constructing that broad caucus. He was named on Thursday at round 7:15 p.m. and chosen after 4 votes — one of many quickest conclave elections in fashionable historical past. Church leaders have been probably eager to indicate unity after years of division underneath Francis. “It was 10 years of civil struggle,” mentioned Vatican watcher Marco Politi.
On the similar time, his appointment has executed little to appease the ultra-conservatives who lengthy bristled underneath Francis’ reformist reign, and signifies that progressives acquired the higher hand within the conclave regardless of feverish makes an attempt by MAGA-aligned conservatives to exert affect.
“It’s just about what I anticipated — the identical kind of factor as Bergoglio relating to the substance, however barely pared down by way of type,” mentioned Benjamin Harnwell, a detailed ally of former Trump strategist Steve Bannon and the Europe correspondent for the Warfare Room podcast.
Certainly, Prevost has already signaled that he’ll comply with the custom of Francis, mentioned Stephen Schneck, former director of the Institute for Coverage Analysis and Catholic Research on the Catholic College of America.
Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni mentioned the identify Leo XIV pays tribute to Pope Leo XIII, a nineteenth century pontiff who launched fashionable social doctrine to the church and defended the rights of employees. “It’s not an off-the-cuff reference.”
Leo XIII’s instructing “created the a part of the church that helps environmentalism, racial justice and a extra democratic strategy. I believe he’s an excellent alternative for a world the place authoritarianism is on the rise,” Schneck mentioned.
“What he mentioned in his deal with exhibits he shall be a continuation of Francis, as he put an emphasis on solidarity and the marginalized. Clearly, he received’t be the identical, however he shall be within the custom of Francis.”
However on the similar time, Prevost has already distanced himself from the nice and cozy personalism and radicalism of his late predecessor. Specifically, his alternative on Thursday to put on the normal crimson stole that was worn by Benedict XVI — however eschewed by Francis — alerts “some extent of conservatism,” Pattenden mentioned.
“He’s not a Francis man,” agreed the particular person quoted above, who knew Francis. “He’s not a Franciscan — he’s near Francis, however he’s not a real Francis continuity candidate, which might’ve been Tagle,” a reference to Filipino Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, thought of a progressive frontrunner.
To some, it’s vindication — at the least partially — of the favored conception that new popes at all times counterbalance their predecessors, embodied within the well-known Italian saying “fats pope, skinny pope.”
“They’ve determined that after the fats pope they want the skinny one who can run the present, handle issues successfully and restore a little bit of order to the typically chaotic operations that Francis left behind,” Pattenden mentioned.