Leo XIV’s papacy begins

In the Mass on Sunday, Pope 267 asked for peace in conflicts in progress and wanted the happy Mother’s Day. It represents both continuity and change for this two thousand years church, now, for the first time, directed by an American Pope.

Dressed in these historic papal clothing, he is a fan of the white socks of Chicago’s tennis, a former mathematics student at the University of Villanova who is now Pontiff-Papa Leo XIV.

Before the conclave that selected Robert Prevost, was the fight for the courts of the cardinals. When we asked Cardinal Jean-Paul Vesco if the names had been mentioned, he replied: “No. Without names. Without names.”

The anticipation in the Plaza de San Pedro was palpable, observing and waiting for a signal.

John and Jill Bowling traveled from Illinois, although they are not Catholics. “We came alone for this,” John said.

“Something I had wanted to do since I was a child looking on television,” Jill said. “I thought that one day I want to be standing there.”

For Thursday afternoon, tens of thousands were shoulders with shoulder, hoping to witness the story, until white smoke appeared, and Cardinal Dominique Mamberti announced to the crowd, “Habemus Papam”-“We have a Pope.” And we soon listen to the name: Cardinal Prevost.

For an estimated crowd of 150,000, the new Pope spoke in Italian, Latin and Spanish, promising to build bridges.

On Friday he returned to the Sistine Chapel. There, the first Native English -speaking pope from Adrian IV of England in the twelfth century said: “I know I can trust each and every one of you to walk with me.”

While Cardinal Prevost was seen as Paracabile (or “Pope worthy”), a pontiff of the United States was widely considered unlikely. Then, we were surprised when we listened to this of the papal biographer Austen Ivereight before the conclave: “I think you should probably prepare to have the first American Pope. I am listening to Cardinal Prevost, who leads the bishops here.”

He called it.

“Yes, I was quite convinced,” Ivereight told us after the conclave. It was one of the few.

“The list of requirements for a Pope is not easy,” said Ivereight. “You must be evangelizer in chief. You must be a statesman who can interact with world leaders. And you need to be a good governor of this place. And I thought, Prevost brings them together in a beautiful way.”

On Saturday, the new Pope made some surprise appearances, after meeting with the cardinals to detail his vision, identify artificial intelligence as one of our greatest threats and embrace the ideals of his predecessor of a more inclusive church, one that reaches those of the margins.

Prevost went to Peru as a missionary. He spent 20 years there and became a citizen.

“He is American, but he feels very Peruvian,” said Father Alexander Lam, who is Peruvian. He was delighted that his fellow Augustine priest became a pontiff. “We jumped!” Serious.

When asked what type of potato predost will be, LAM replied: “He is very prudent, a person who can listen to you passionately. He always tries to understand you very well.”

But that title, Leo XIV, can take time to get used. “His very close friends call him Bob,” Lam said.

Those 133 cardinals took only two days to choose “Bob”, while being locked in the Sistine Chapel, a tradition born of the need in 1268, in Viterbo, north of Rome. There we met the art historian Giordano Conticelli.

“This is where the first conclave took place,” he said. “Here, something really important happened. A group of cardinals gathered to choose the new Pope, and the problem was that he took a long time. He took about three years almost.” 1,006 days, to be exact.

I asked him: “Citizens were getting tired of waiting for a Pope?”

“They were absolutely exhausted,” said Conticelli. “Then, they decided to lock the cardinals inside, Closed with the keywhich literally means blocked with a key, which is where the word comes from. “

But then, things got more extreme. “The next measure was to ration his food,” said Conticelli, “and finally since that did not work, they decided to remove the roof from the hall.”

The elimination of the roof to let the elements in this time. John and Jill Bowling had a much shorter wait. “It was just one of those moments that you can’t replace,” John said. “I was surprised how emotional I was. I think he says something about the unity of humanity, that moved to me.”

Gathered in this timeless square, we met people from different countries and convictions, many attracted not only by the great show, but by belief – either hope – In a new moral leader who is not guided by national interests, but something greater.

I asked Austen Ivereight: “When we look back in this conclave, how will it be remembered?”

“I think it could be remembered as the conclave that had to deal with the breakdown of world order,” he replied. “They chose a man who had a very strong message of the balcony of bringing peace to Earth. What is the role of the Catholic Church in a moment of war? Well, it is obviously to show the world that there is another way. And I think that, in Leo, we will see an American who exerts a very different type of leadership, and it is the task of the papage to help us recover that universal unity.”

For more information:

• Austen Ivereight (Official Site)
• “First belong to God: In Retiro with Pope Francis” by Austen Ivereight (Loyola Press), in commercial pocket formats, ebook and audio, available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Bookshop.org
• Father Alexander Lam on Instagram

History produced by Mikaela Buffano. Editor: Ed Givnish.

See also:

In:
• Vatican City
• Papa Leo XIV
• Catholic church