Ever since the death of Pope Francis, some of us among Catholics lived some anxious moments as we were not sure whether his would-be-successor would also continue to implement the teachings of the Second Vatican Council as the late Pope had been courageously endeavouring to. On 8^th May (the second day of the Conclave) around 6 pm, when white smoke appeared through the chimney above the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel where the 133 Cardinals were in Conclave to elect a new Pope, such anxieties reached a climax as people from every part of Rome – both believers and non-believers – flooded into Vatican’s St.Peter’s Square to witness an historic occasion.

Who is he?

When the name of the 267^th Successor of St.Peter was first announced officially around 7.10 pm (Roman time), the crowd cheered ecstatically as they usually do on such occasions, but most of them were asking among themselves who could this Roberto Francesco Cardinal Prevost be. After all, he was not featuring in the lists of those Cardinals who were tipped as ‘Papabili’ (possible papal candidates) by the journalists and other self-appointed pundits. Those who were closer to the Vatican Curia, however, immediately knew that he was the former Superior General of the Augustinians, and that he was the Cardinal Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops for the past two years or so. This writer (though he won’t dare to say that he knows the new Pope), remembered immediately how simple and unassuming Cardinal Prevost was during the two recent Synodal Assemblies in Rome in October 2023 and October 2024.

By electing him as Pope, the Cardinals in the Conclave have made a well-discerned choice. The Holy Spirit surely would have been their inspiring guide in doing so. The new Pope is a member of a Religious Congregation (Augustinians), succeeding another religious from the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), something unique in recent papal history. If Pope Francis injected quite a good dose of Jesuit spirituality mixed with pastoral theology to ecclesial life, now a Pope with an Augustinian spirituality could do the same in a complementary way. In Cardinal Prevost, many of his fellow Cardinals in the Conclave would have seen their own concerns and interests represented. He is a person who was born and brought up in a mega-city of the so-called “First World” (in Chicago, USA) but spent most of his life (some 20 years) as a pastor in a very rural area of a so-called “Third World” country, Peru. Thus, he has first-hand experience of both North and South Americas, i.e., experience of both urban and rural living. As a matter of fact, he has citizenship in both the USA and Peru. Add to this, he is a man who has had both pastoral experience in Peru as well as Roman Curial experience within the Vatican during the past two years or so ever since he was hand-picked and brought to Rome from Peru by Pope Francis. Moreover, those Cardinals of the Vatican Curia would have been happy to vote for one of their own while those Cardinals who are in their pastoral fields would have also been happy to see someone who would understand the day-to-day living in reality, especially in the vast areas of the developing poor countries. Besides, he speaks English, Spanish, Italian, French and Portuguese fluently. But most of all, he has been known as a simple, unassuming pastor who was close to the people in very remote parts of Peru. That is to say that he is “a Shepherd with the smell of the sheep”, to use a cliché so dear to the late Pope Francis. Could one think of a better candidate than Cardinal Prevost to be the Bishop of Rome?

More importantly, this writer has heard from reliable sources that the recent Conclave was a first-hand spiritual experience for most of the Cardinals. They say that the movement of the Holy Spirit was obvious as Cardinal Prevost emerged as a papal candidate from nowhere and gradually gathered momentum until he was elected in the fourth ballot. For this, he needed a two-thirds of the votes of the 133 Cardinals in the Conclave, and apparently, he attracted votes from both the so-called “conservatives” and the “liberals”, from both the Curia Cardinals and those in the pastoral field and from the Cardinals of the First World as well as from those from the Third World. No wonder that the Conclave did not last even two full days.

A few acts and words of the new Pope

Unlike Pope Francis who made his first appearance wearing a plain white cassock with a cross around his neck (in total contrast to what has been the custom in the past), the new Pope came out in the full official customary papal attire for such occasions, especially with the traditional red, ermine-trimmed mozzetta (the gold-embroidered stole). Interestingly, he wore a pectoral cross which contains the relics of four saints of his beloved Augustinian Congregation, including those of Sts. Augustine and Monica. It was a cross donated to him by his Augustinian confreres when he was created a Cardinal hardly two years ago. After appearing for the first time in public as Pope on the balcony of St.Peter’s, he waved at the thousands, and remained silent with a broad smile on his face, emotionally looking at the ecstatically cheering crowds. Once their cheering subsided somewhat, thus, providing him some space to speak, his opening words in the brief address to those gathered at St.Peter’s Square were: “Peace be with all of you!” Then, he began to read from a prepared text, in total contrast to his recent predecessors who preferred to speak impromptu at their very first public appearance.

Once elected by the Conclave, just after giving his consent in accepting the office of Pope, the age-old custom has it that the new Pope has to choose a name. Instead of choosing a name taken by his immediate predecessors, such as Francis II, Benedict XVII or John Paul III, Cardinal Prevost preferred to choose a name which has not been chosen since 1878 by any Pope – Leo XIV. As the new Pope himself told a few days later, he chose this name mainly to refer to Pope Leo XIII who is known mostly for having initiated the Catholic Social Doctrine in 1891 with his famous encyclical Rerum Novarum which highlighted the terrible working conditions of the workers in the immediate aftermath of the Industrial Revolution in Europe, and called for “a just and living wage” for labourers. The new Pope seems to be determined to continue the rich and diverse legacies of his predecessors since 1891 in this regard (promoting the social moral issues), but apparently according to his own convictions and way of doing things, and thus, being himself. At a time when media and others are obsessed in tagging people (including the Popes!) into various camps and groups, such a choice of a name of a remote Pope would not leave any room for anyone to link him directly with any of the recent Popes.

Even in his roughly eight-minute hand-written discourse at his presentation to the world from the balcony of St.Peter’s Basilica on 8^th May immediately after his election, he referred to quite a number of contemporary social issues touched by his predecessors during the past two centuries or so, such as peace-building, disarmament, building bridges, dialogue, reconciliation,….etc. At a time when there are ever-growing divisions not only in the secular world, but also within the Catholic

Church over various issues, by highlighting such issues which contribute to building a better world, Pope Leo XIV seems to be ready to give priority to bridge-building, thus being true to his traditional title “Pontefice” (which means “bridge-builder”).

Will he be a follower of the Pastoral Vision of Pope Francis?

This has been the question posed to me by most of my friends and acquaintances during the past few days. To begin with, the new Pope had a special personal, working relationship with Pope Francis. During the last two years or so, as the head of the Dicastery for Bishops in the Vatican, Cardinal Prevost had an appointment with the Pope every Saturday morning. In an interview given by him to the Vatican News, immediately after the death of Pope Francis, we notice how much he admired the late Pope when he was reported as having said: “I have always had the impression of a man who wanted to live the Gospel authentically and coherently”. He went on to say: “He gave so many things to the Church; his gestures of closeness speak so eloquently. Until the end, he wanted to give everything to his ministry, to work, to service in the Church”

In his brief address to the thousands gathered at St.Peter’s Square, immediately after his election, the new Pope linked his opening greeting (“Peace be with all of you!”) to his immediate predecessor reminding the crowd how Pope Francis had used the same greeting, from the same place to greet the people gathered for last Easter, just a couple of weeks before. The crowd broke into euphoric cheers again when they heard the name Francis. Then, the new Pope affectionately added: “Thank you Pope Francis”! As the crowd roared again with loud nostalgic cries of approval, it was apparent that this new Pope would be following the pastoral vision of Pope Francis. In the same speech, he went on to confirm this when he said that the Church welcomes all, and that the Church walks together with all, and finally, that the Church is synodal and wishes to build bridges for all, words with which the Church and the world had been reverberating during the past 12 years of the pontificate of Pope Francis.

Moreover, one also needs to recall that for many years Fr.Prevost (as the Superior General of the Augustinians and as a pastor in a very remote part of Peru) was known to Pope Francis while the latter was still the Cardinal Archbishop of Bueno Aires in Argentina. His closeness to the people as an Augustinian missionary in Peru was well-known to Cardinal Bergoglio from those days. Perhaps, it was these personal experiences of Fr. Prevost that prompted Pope Francis to make him a bishop in Peru in 2015. During the eight years of his service as the bishop of Chiclayo in Peru, he was known as a shepherd who moved among his people, as “a shepherd who had the smell of the sheep”, to use the words of Pope Francis! In January 2023, he was hand-picked by Pope Francis himself to be the Cardinal Prefect of the powerful Dicastery for Bishops in the Vatican Curia, and then, created a Cardinal in September of the same year, by the same Pope. According to CNN’s Vatican correspondent, Christopher Lamb, the late Pope Francis “respected him and thought of him very highly”. Lamb adds: “Clearly Pope Francis saw in him something – he saw him as a capable leader.” In hind-sight, it looks as if Pope Francis had prepared his successor personally though the late Pope would have never even dreamt that it would happen so soon after his death. As a matter of fact, Cardinal Prevost is one of the very few in papal history to be elected Pope after having been a Cardinal for just 18 months.

That the new Pope would follow the pastoral blue-print of Pope Francis was further confirmed when he addressed the Cardinals the very next day after his election as Pope, and explicitly highlighted the importance of the first official document of Francis, Evangelii Gaudium which is considered by many as the fundamental pastoral plan of the former Pope. In the same Address, Pope Leo XIV again paid a special tribute to his predecessor, remembering Pope Francis’ simplicity, his radical dedication to service, and his peaceful return to the Father’s House. “Let us treasure this precious legacy and resume our journey,” he said, “animated by the same hope that comes from faith,” he told the Cardinals. One is also reminded of what the then Cardinal Prevost said some two years ago (in 2023) in another interview: “I believe it is very important to promote communion in the Church, and we know well that communion, participation, and mission are the three key words of the Synod. So, as an Augustinian, for me promoting unity and communion is fundamental.” Apparently then, the new Pope will surely continue to promote the synodal way of life in the Church (which was so dear to the heart of Pope Francis) which is a concrete effort to resuscitate the teachings of the Second Vatican Council.

In the interview just after the death of Pope Francis last month, Cardinal Prevost referring to the 12-year pontificate of Pope Francis, said: “He transmitted to all of us the spirit of wanting to continue what began with the Second Vatican Council, the need to always renew the Church, the Church semper reformanda est.” Cardinal Prevost added: “There is still much to do, we must continue. We cannot stop, we cannot go back. We must see how the Holy Spirit wants the Church to be today and tomorrow, because the world today, in which the Church lives, is not the same as that of ten or twenty years ago”. Last but not least, on the very second day after his election, Pope Leo XIV made sure to visit the tomb of Pope Francis at the Basilica of St.Mary Major in Rome, and after offering floral tributes, he prayed in silence.

All the above-mentioned words and gestures of the new Pope (before his election as Pope and after his election) indicate that he would follow the pastoral vision of Pope Francis (which in fact was based on the fundamental teachings of the Second Vatican Council) though in his own style. After all, Prevost cannot be expected to be a mere replica of Bergoglio though as Pope he can be expected to continue his predecessor’s pastoral vision, but in his own way!

Rev. Fr. Vimal Tirimanna, CssR,Rome