Vatican City – Robert Prevost, a missionary who spent his career in Minister in Peru and resumed the powerful bishops of the Vatican bishops, was elected the first pope of the United States during the history of 2000 years of the Catholic Church.
PREVOST, a 69 -year -old member of the Augustinian religious order, took the name of Leo XIV.
In his first words as successor to Pope Francis, pronounced from the loggia of the Saint-Pierre basilica, Leo said: “Peace be with you” and underlined a message of peace, missionary dialogue, dialogue and evangelization. He wore the traditional red cape of the papacy – a cape that Francis had avoided during his elections in 2013.
Prévost had been a leading candidate for the papacy, but there has long been a taboo against an American pope, given the geopolitical power of the country already exercised in the secular sphere. But Prevost, originally from Chicago, was apparently eligible because he is also a Peruvian citizen and lived for years in Peru, first as a missionary and then archbishop.
Pope Francis clearly had an eye on Prévost and in many ways saw him as his apparent heir. He brought prevost to the Vatican in 2023 to serve as a powerful head of the office who takes in sight the appointments of bishops around the world, one of the most important jobs of the Catholic Church. And in January, he raised it in the senior rows of cardinals. Consequently, Prevost was important in the conclave that few other cardinals had.
The crowd of Place Saint-Pierre broke out in applause when the white smoke dumped from the Sistine Chapel on the second day of the conclave. The priests made the sign of the cross and that the nuns were crying while the crowd shouted “Viva il dad!”
Standing flags from around the world, tens of thousands of people waited to learn who had won and was shocked when an hour later, the cardinal deacon senior appeared on the loggia and said “Habemus papam!” And announced that the winner was Prévost.
He spoke to the crowd in Italian and Spanish, but not in English.
The last pope to take the name of Leo was Leo XIII, an Italian who led the church from 1878 to 1903. That Leo softens the position of confrontation of the Church towards modernity, in particular science and politics and laid the foundations of modern Catholic social thinking, the most famous with its 1891 Encycliques Rerum Novarum, which treated the rights and capitalists of workers.
Eyes on the chimney
Earlier Thursday, large school groups joined the mixture of humanity while waiting for the result on Saint-Pierre square. They mixed with people participating in pre-plane pilgrimages of the Holy Year and journalists from around the world who went down to Rome to document the elections.
“The wait is wonderful!” said Priscilla talking, a Roman.
Pedro Déget, 22, a student in finance in Argentina, said that he and his family visited Rome during the Pope Argentinian Pope and hoped for a new pope like François.
“Francis did well by opening the church to the outside world, but on other fronts, he may not have done enough. We will see if the next one can do more,” said Detget from Piazza.
Reverend Jan Dominik Bogataj, a Slovenian Franciscan brother, was more critical of Francis. He said that if he was in the Sistine Chapel, he would vote for Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem who appears on many lists of papal candidates.
“He has clear ideas, not much ideology. He is a direct, intelligent and respectful man,” said Bogataj since the place. “Above all, he is agile.”
Some of the cardinals said they expected a short conclave.
For a large part of the last century, the conclave needs between three and 14 ballots to find a pope. Jean -Paul I – The Pope who reigned for 33 days in 1978 – was elected to the fourth ballot. His successor, John Paul II, needed eight. Francis was elected the fifth in 2013.
Conjecture on contenders
The cardinals opened the secret and secure ritual on Wednesday afternoon, participating in a more theatrical rite than even Hollywood. Bright red breaks, Swiss guards supported for attention, Latin songs and ballast oaths preceded the closure of the Sistine Chapel doors to seal the cardinals of the outside world.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the 70 -year -old secretary of state under François and a leading competitor to succeed him as a Pope, assumed the procedure as a cardinal under 80, eligible to participate.
Paroline seemed to have received blessings from none other than Re, the elder respected among the cardinals. During the traditional exchange of peace during mass before the contract on Wednesday, RE was taken for a hot micro indicating the paroline “Auguri Doppio” or “Double Best Wishes”. The Italians discussed the question of whether it was a customary gesture recognizing the role of performer performing conclave, or if he could have been an informal approval or even premature congratulations.
The voting process
The vote follows a strict choreography, dictated by the law of the church.
Each cardinal writes his choice on a piece of paper registered with the words “Eligo in Summen Pontificem” – “I elected as a supreme pontiff”. They approach the altar one by one and say: “I call like my witness, Christ the Lord who will be my judge, that my vote is given to the one who, before God, I think that should be elected.”
The folded ballot is placed on a round plate and tilted in a silver and gold urn. Once poured, the ballots are opened one by one by a different “scan”, the cardinals selected at random who note the names and read them aloud.
The scrupoters, whose work is verified by other cardinals called Revisers, then add the results of each ballot cycle and write them on a separate sheet of paper, which is kept in the papal archives.
While examining the scrutor reads each name, he pierces each ballot with a needle through the word “Eligo”. All voting bulletins are then linked with wire, and the beam is put aside and burned in the stove of the chapel with a chemical to produce smoke.
