Pope Leo XIV, previously often called Robert Prevost, is the first American pontiff.
He was elected on Thursday, lower than three weeks after the demise of Pope Francis, and his elevation instantly made historical past. Leo grew up in Chicago, majored in math at Villanova College, and spent many years serving the Catholic Church in Peru.
Considerably, Pope Leo can also be the primary pontiff to hail from the Augustinian order, which was based in 1244.
The Augustinians are a mendicant order, which suggests they rely largely on charitable donations for his or her wants. They prioritize group and missionary work, with a particular emphasis on serving the poor and the weak.
These beliefs might have influenced Leo’s resolution, whereas he was nonetheless a cardinal, to share critiques of the Trump administration on-line, notably on problems with immigration — which places him at odds with one other distinguished American Catholic: Vice President JD Vance.
In a January interview with Fox Information, Vance used his religion as a justification for the Trump administration’s America First agenda. “You like your loved ones and then you definately love your neighbor, and then you definately love your group, and then you definately love your fellow residents in your personal nation, after which after that, you possibly can focus [on] and prioritize the remainder of the world,” Vance mentioned.
Shortly after that interview, Leo shared a hyperlink to a Nationwide Catholic Reporter article titled “JD Vance Is Fallacious: Jesus Doesn’t Ask Us to Rank Our Love for Others.”
Right now, Defined needed to get to know this new pope and higher perceive why the conclave chosen him. So we known as up Terence Sweeney. He’s an assistant instructing professor within the humanities division and honors program at Villanova College — not solely the pope’s alma mater (class of ’77) but additionally the one Augustinian college in the USA.
His dialog with Noel King, edited for size and readability, is beneath. There’s way more within the full podcast, so take heed to Right now, Defined wherever you get podcasts, together with Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
How shocked had been you [by Pope Leo’s selection]?
I used to be each shocked and never shocked. I’ve been speaking about him with pals and college students for the previous couple of weeks. Yesterday morning, I popped into the workplace of Father Allen, an Augustinian on campus, and I mentioned, ‘Are we gonna have an Augustinian pope?’ And he mentioned he didn’t suppose so.
Certain sufficient, just a few hours later, I received a textual content message from my pal who mentioned, ‘You known as it.’
However on the similar time, I used to be very shocked. I used to be looking forward to him, however he’s an American, and historically, that’s seen as, ‘Oh, it received’t occur.’ So I each type of known as it and was completely shocked.
So inform us who he’s. Who’s Robert Prevost, or Pope Leo XIV?
Prevost is a child who grew up in Chicago and went to Villanova College. He had met Augustinians as a younger man and joined the order simply after faculty. Perhaps most notably, [he] then proceeded to spend most of his life as a priest after which a bishop within the missions in Peru. He may have gotten assigned to a pleasant parish in a wealthier a part of the USA, however as a substitute, he went to Peru to be with the poor, to do work there, to do ministry there, and I believe that’s in some ways the guts of who he’s.
You may give it some thought like this: I’ve a fairly soft spot at Villanova. I’ve a home. It’s snug. To all of a sudden shift gears to a very new tradition, studying the language totally in a spot that possibly doesn’t have as many perks as an American suburban parish would possibly, I believe that’s an actual signal of eager to be with these on the margins of world energy and economics.
I don’t suppose we’ve had a pope in centuries who has had this expertise of working within the missions. We’ve had pastor popes, scholar popes, diplomat popes. However a pope who spent most of his life in a poor a part of a rustic doing missionary work — I don’t even know if we’ve ever had one.
When Pope Francis died, there was an enormous dialog about whether or not the church would choose any person who was extra conventional or who was considered as extra progressive, the best way Pope Francis was. What sort of selection is Pope Leo XIV? The place does he fall on that spectrum?
In some methods, like Pope Francis, he type of throws us off of those spectrums.
He took the title Leo, which is a fairly conventional papal title. He’s the 14th, proper? He’s not the primary. He’s intently figuring out with each the primary Pope Leo, Pope Saint Leo the Nice, and Pope Leo XIII, who’re richly a part of the custom. Leo XIII is notable for his work on one thing known as Catholic social thought: what the church brings to the questions of economics and justice and politics. And that has tended to be one thing that what we name progressive Catholics have actually centered on.
I believe it was additionally notable that the language of his first handle to the individuals in St. Peter’s Sq. was richly tied in with Pope Francis: He talked about bridge-building and peace being with all of you. And I believe there are some indicators that he desires to hold on a variety of what Pope Francis did, however possibly make extra connections, we’d say, between the type of Pope Francis aspect of the church and the Pope Benedict aspect.
You’ve talked about a number of instances that he’s an Augustinian. What’s an Augustinian, precisely?
The Augustinians are a bunch of friars. They had been based in 1244, they usually’re grounded in three ideas: dwelling in group, a extremely robust sense that wherever we go, we go collectively. [A] deep sense of the guts. When you ever see an icon of St. Augustine, he’s usually holding a coronary heart. [That symbolizes] the sense that what we have to do is make connections with different individuals of their hearts. And a extremely robust name to the mission to exit. The unique Augustinians usually went into cities and varied locations to be with individuals the place they had been.
After Robert Prevost was chosen yesterday, instantly it got here to the floor that he had expressed some opinions on immigration. I noticed individuals — and also you had written about this previously — drawing a line between the Augustinian custom and the present controversies that the USA is dealing with over immigration. What’s the Augustinian place on immigration?
Basically, probably the most vital components of being an Augustinian is usually known as the order of loves. It’s this concept that our hearts have to develop. Our hearts can get very slim. We will fall in love solely with ourselves. So we have to discover a option to have our hearts develop to make room for God, who’s infinite. If you make room for God, you make room for everybody, notably for these in want. One of many large duties of his hold forth for People — for every kind of Catholics, every kind of individuals — helps us broaden our hearts.
Notably, we now have a vice chairman who’s Catholic. JD Vance has spoken in regards to the order of loves. You may take into consideration what he mentioned as having a variety of the fitting phrases, however getting the tune improper. He described one of many crucial concepts that the order of loves teaches us: that we rightly prioritize people who find themselves nearer to us. He’s emphasizing that and saying: People rightly prioritize People. However he’s lacking the purpose of the order of loves, that [the heart] was imagined to develop, to go outward. Whereas Vance appears to be speaking about it as a method of retracting and going inward.
Pope Francis challenged him on this. Then Prevost retweeted an article in America journal about difficult Vance on this. That’s an early indication that he, as pope, goes to very a lot stand with a broadening of our loves.
It is vitally 2025 for a brand new pope to be retweeting criticism of a vice chairman. What do you suppose it tells us about Pope Leo XIV?
I believe that he sees his workplace as a bishop, and now as bishop of Rome, as a prophetic one. He has a process of prophetic witness. That prophetic witness goes to discuss a variety of issues. He’s going to discuss the setting. He will certainly discuss immigration. He’s going to discuss abortion. He’s going to discuss quite a few issues which are going to throw American binaries off.
We now have to needless to say he’s a profoundly pro-refugee and pro-life pope, and one thing I share with him, the sense that the love that we broaden out is supposed to go notably to the smallest and essentially the most forgotten. And I believe he sees that, and I believe he’s going to talk in that prophetic witness as did the popes earlier than him.
