Friends: Against conventional Catholic wisdom that an American can’t be pope (we’re a superpower, after all), Peruvian missionary Bob Prevost, now Leo XIV, hails from Chicago.  Blessings, Bob

--- --- ---

Spirituality Column #965

May 13, 2025

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Citizen of the World’

By Bob Walters

“But our citizenship is in heaven.” – Philippians 4:20

Pope Leo XIV – born Robert Francis Prevost, Sept. 14, 1955, in Chicago – was the “surprise” choice last week when white smoke danced from the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel chimney. “Habemus Papam!” – “We have a Pope.”

This new leader of the 1.4 billion worldwide congregants of the Roman Catholic Church – this new Bishop of Rome occupying the 2,000-year-old Chair of St. Peter – is the first American successor to the apostle. It turns out Prevost wasn’t really a surprise, but since he served for decades in Peru, I didn’t, at first, get that he is American.

But American he is; American enough to be a White Sox and Bears fan growing up on the south side of Chicago, attending high school at St. Augustine prep in Holland, Mich., and graduating from Villanova University. He earned a masters of divinity at Chicago Theological Union (1982), and carries dual American and Peruvian citizenship.

As for a “surprise” pick, it is true that few outside his various pastorates and bishoprics knew him. But Pope Francis, who died April 21, personally recruited and elevated Archbishop Prevost to a high level Vatican cardinal in 2023 as the Director of the Dicastery of Bishops, the cardinal bishop in charge of who became Catholic bishops. That position recently along with Prevost’s extensive mission work made him well known to cardinals as a highly able pastor and administrator.

The odds-on favorite for pope was Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of State and de facto No. 2 to Pope Francis. He was the best known of the 133 attending cardinals – who largely didn’t know each other – but was a career-long Vatican bureaucrat.  Prevost, from now on Leo XIV, was deemed better suited to the Church’s global missions reach. He was elected after only four rounds of balloting.

Quoting the weekend Wall Street Journal: “The 69-year-old long-time Bishop of Chiclayo in Peru was from the U.S. but of the global south. Many of his supporters described the polyglot prelate by the same four words: ‘citizen of the world.’”

Every Christian knows we are “citizens of heaven,” not of the world.  But given the Roman Catholic history of worldwide missions work in the spirit of Jesus’s Great Commission in Matthew 28:19 – “make disciples of all nations” – let’s read that as a compliment of dedicated global ministry, not a negative of worldly passions.

Anyway … top Catholic leaders around the world knew of Prevost’s leadership.

Regarding the Vatican’s well-known current financial difficulties, WSJ columnist Peggy Noonan pointed out that Leo is the first Vatican “boss who is assumed to be versed in the general principles of American management.” That can’t hurt.

Personally, I was fascinated that Leo is of the “Augustinian Order,” organized by hermit monks in 1255. Taking the name “Leo,” he reminds us of fifth century pope “Leo the Great” who defended against heresies, built Christian doctrine as to the dual nature of Christ (God and man), and also talked Atilla the Hun out of sacking Rome in 452.

Leo XIII, 1878 to 1903, was highly consequential outlining Catholic social instruction and the rights of workers in an era of heavy U.S. union organization.

Leo the XIV promises to be neither as liberal nor as conservative as various factions in the Church fear or promote. If he’s a Godly citizen of the world with a loving pastoral touch, dedication to Church traditions, and steeped in scriptural truth, perhaps he will be the shepherd who draws the flock and staves off the wolves.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) is aware that many of his Bible Christian brethren are wary of Catholic doctrines, that many Catholics are skeptical of Bible Christians, and that there is no shortage of dispute, scandal, and intrigue surrounding Vatican global influence and local pastoral misconduct … yet Walters hesitates to cast the first stone. May Jesus Christ be known and loved by all. Btw … here is a Facebook Reel of Bishop Prevost at a White Sox World Series game in 2005: Prevost at Sox WS game. Leo XIV will be formally installed as Pope next Sunday, May 18, 2025.