World Catholics see the first American pope as barely American

The surprising election of the first American pope felt heavy and disorienting for Roman Catholics around the world, who had considered such an unlikely and perhaps impatient result-until Pope Leo XIV climbed on the Balcony of the Saint-Pierre Basilica and chooses to speak a few sentences in Spanish.

In an instant, the new pope, formerly Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, reported that his identity would challenge an easy categorization. He chose in this pivotal moment Thursday evening to say nothing in English or mention the United States. He seemed determined to transmit the message that he was not a typical American.

It worked. Pope Leo, born in Chicago, has a Creole heritage, lives in Peru for decades and speaks at least three languages, has established himself as a citizen of the world. Catholics around the world have run to claim parts of its multicultural and multilingual history.

“He considers himself American, but he also considers himself Peruvian,” said Julia Cillet, a 33 -year -old osteopath, who was online outside the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris for a special service for young Catholics celebrating the new Pope on Friday evening. “He is a priest of the world.”

At a time when President Trump isolated the United States of his diplomatic allies and business partners and upset a large part of the World Order, some Catholics feared that an American pontiff somehow brought together the Roman Catholic Church of the tumultuous American government.

Instead, Pope Leo seems to have reassured them, at least for the moment, that he would preserve the Church as a world moral voice calling peace and justice, especially for migrants, the poor and the victims of the war, in the mold of Pope Francis.