What does the first pope of America mean for the Catholic Church

The white smoke that came out of the Sistine Chapel on Thursday pointed to a new pope: the first in America.

Thousands of miles away in Illinois, a feeling of ecstasy greeted the man formerly known as Robert Prevost, who is now in one of the most Swedhered and powerful positions In the world, in a time of acute turbulence.

“I am floating, dirty, surprised,” said Mark Piper, a parishioner from St Barnabas Church, on the south side of Chicago. “I didn’t expect an American pope.”

“There is certainly a sense of pride in the fact that he is from Chicago,” said Father Sergio Romo, a shepherd of the parish of Sant Andreu, of the pontiff born and raised in the third city in America.

“By directing the conclave, people would ask:” What are the possibilities of an American pope? “And I transmitted conventional wisdom, which was a very slender possibility,” he said. “Many people call me and they say,” Oh, you were wrong! “”

The name of Prevost had circulated in recent weeks as a potential commitment to succeed Pope Francis – But gambling markets had made the chance of Chicago’s man at less than 1 %.

Pope Lion XIV, as he will be known, faces a trap full of challenges, including the Vatican precarious finance and demands to protect children from sexual abuse by priests.

He will also have to direct the Church through the geopolitical crisis derived from his north -American native under President Donald Trump.

It Vatican For decades the United States has seen the United States as an ally in the defense of a liberal global order in search of religious freedom in more authoritarian regions. But Trump’s unpredictability has prevented the Holy See anxiety.

The cardinals have chosen a leader who, although more ideologically aligned with the relatively progressive worldview of his predecessor Francis, could face the President of the United States.

“Once, we needed to have a pope who spoke in favor of human rights in Russia and China,” said Massimo Faggioli, a professor of theology at Villanova University, where he studied the pontiff. “Now you need someone who can really talk in north -American power.”

Born in Chicago in 1955, Prevost prepared a race in the Church shortly after leaving school. He studied mathematics in Villanova before continuing to join the order of Saint Augustine and be ordained as a priest at the age of 26.

His training years went to Peru, where he worked for more than a decade at the Archdiocese of Trujillo. Prevost raised the ranks of a local church that the bishops were divided between left -handed ones, strongly influenced by Latin America’s liberation theology and arc conservatives with close links to Opus Dei.

Prevost returned to Peru as bishop from 2015 to 2023. There, he said in Spanish in his first speech as a pope on Thursday, “a faithful people have accompanied its bishop and shared its faith.”

“She chose to be one of us, to live with each other and bring in her heart the faith, culture and dreams of this nation,” said Dina Boluarte, on Thursday, in a televised speech.

Prevost had attracted the attention of Pope Francis, who named him as a bishop in 2015 and promoted him quickly. The Argentine pontiff summoned him to Rome in 2023 to lead the powerful dictionary for the bishop’s appointments: a work that allowed him to build networks through world Catholic leadership.

However, the surprise of Prevost at the highest work of the Church and the leader of the Catholics of the world of 1.4 million people, has left viewers who were trying to reach their basic beliefs and the search for clues to their leadership style.

Its selection of the name Leo suggests that Prevost will continue in the progressive line of its predecessor. Leo XIII, Pope at the turn of the 20th century, was the author of the Of the revolutionary Enciclic letter, often considered the first step in the gradual acceptance of the Catholic Church of political modernity and included a Christian defense of workers’ rights.

“He returned until 1900 and chose Leo XIII,” said Greg Pierce, the Publications publisher Acta in Chicago. “This will send a message to Donald Trump and his friends … This pope will not go through some kind of return to the old ways.”

But the new pontiff is also a member of the Augustin order, which tends to scare more traditional theological visions.

“The conclave was torn, but Prevost was tolerable on both sides: conservative and progressive champions,” said David Deane, who teaches Christian doctrine at the Atlantic Theology School in Halifax, Canada.

“On the one hand, he is a critic of Trump I (Vice President of the United States JD) Vance and his approach to immigration. He is a defender of minorities, a supporter of the synodal and environmental way. But he has also opposed women Deacons and priests, he is a hard in abortion and opposed” gender ideology. “

John Allen JR, publisher of the independent Catholic News website, said that the new pope would have a weight of walking between defending Catholic social education and maintaining Washington and his The influential “maga” Catholics on the part.

Allen said Pope Leo should “navigate clearly defend” his values ​​without damaging his relationship with the United States Government.

“If you want to do something, you have to work with them,” he added. “This will be an extraordinary balance for a strike.”

Additional Guy Chazan reports in Washington, James Fontanella-Khan in New York and Joe Daniels in Bogotá