World Catholics See the First American Pope as Hardly American

The surprising choice of the first American Pope felt tense and disorienting for the Roman Catholics around the world, who had considered such an unlikely and perhaps unpleasant result, until Pope Leo XIV climbed to the balcony of the Basilica of San Pedro and chose to speak some prayers in Spanish.

In an instant, the new Pope, formerly Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, said his identity would challenge the easy categorization. He chose Thursday’s event at that fundamental moment to say anything in English or mention the United States. It seemed intention to convey the message that he was not a typical American.

It worked. Pope Leo, who was born in Chicago, has Creole heritage, lived in Peru for decades and speaks at least three languages, settled as a citizen of the world. Catholics around the world ran to claim pieces of their multicultural and multilingual background as their own.

“He is Himicano Himicano, but hey, he is also considered Peruvian,” said Julia Caillet, a 33 -year -old osteopath, who was in the row outside the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris for a special service before celebrating. “He is a priest of the world.”

At a time when President Trump annulled the United States of his diplomatic allies and commercial partners and flew much of the world order, some Catholics were concerned that an American pontiff could bring the novel governing Catholican Catholican.

On the other hand, Pope Leo seems to have reassured them, at least for now, that he would preserve the Church as a global moral voice that asks for peace and justice, especially for migrants, the poor and the victims of war, in the mold of Pope Francis.

It is described as more reserved and diplomatic than Francis. However, the warm words of Pope Leo for Peru, where he has a double citizenship after having lived and worked there for more than 20 years, reminded Catholics of Francis, who was from Argentina.

Vatican’s news called Leo, 69, not the first Pope of the United States, but the second Pope “of the Americas.” And the South Americans rushed to declare him.

“It is more Peruvian than American,” said Cardinal Odilo Scherer or Brazil at a press conference on Friday.

He and several other Brazilian cardinals hit a question after a question about the nationality of the new Pope; A Brazilian journalist said an American Pope had seemed taboo, due to the power of the United States.

It was a relief for Araceli Torres Hallal, 64, a Catholic businessman in Mexico City, to learn in recent days that the new Pope is not “purely American.”

“We feel threatened by them,” he said about the United States. “So he had a total disaster and a weak cold on his face if the Pope had his leg full of American.”

Mrs. Torres saw the experience of Pope Leo as bishop and missionary in Peru in the order of San Agustín, and her 12 years leading the order worldwide, as crucial to form as a pastor in contact with the needs of poor and vulnerable people. She said she hopes to serve as a counterweight for some of Trump’s antimigrant policies.

Even calling Pope Leo “American” has bothered those Latin Americans who resent the use of the word to describe some of the United States, because they see it as a form of imperialism. They think that “American” should be applied to anyone in the entire continent, that is, from North, Central or South America.

The 133 cardinals who chose Pope Leo in a two -day conclave were surely aware of the possible criticisms they could face for choosing a Pope of a superpower where approximately 80 percent of people are focused on Francis, who must succeed Francis “peripheral”, far from Rome, and mainly in the global south.

Many of the cardinals in the conclave were named by Francis. They came from more country and ever, their views, and yet, they chose an American anyway, in what they described as a deeply spiritual and satisfactory process.

Several cardinals said after the conclave that Pope Leo’s nationality barely mattered.

“In the end, I do not believe that the country of origin, the determination is the factor,” Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle de Filipinas said Friday, which was considered a main contender in the conclave at a press conference on Friday. “Ultimately, it is the person who can really serve the Church.”

In the Philippines, many of the faithful, rooted in Cardinal Tagle, one of several potential contenders to become the first Asian Pope. But some said they were already won by Pope Leo.

Sister Mary John Mananzan, a Benedictine nun, superior and director of the Academy of Santa Scholastics in the city of San Fernando in the Philippines, was encouraged by the news that in social networks, a story under the name of Cardinal Prevost, criticized the vice president JD Vance for trying to affirm that Catholic teaching could be used to the defenses of immigrants from immigrants from immigrants of the immigrants of the immigrants of the immigrants of the immigrants of the immigrants of the immigrants of the immigrants. Joined.

“Although he has a soft quality,” he said about the new Pope, “he has the integrity of being able to express his opinion when someone is violating human rights.”

In Africa, where the church, growing faster than anywhere else in the world, Adelaide Ndilu said it gasped surprised that the new Pope was American. Then he danced for joy.

Mrs. Ndilu, 59, producer and presenter of Radio Waumini, a National Catholic Radio Station in Kenya, said she trusted Pope Leo because either her competition in several languages, years in the heritage of Peru and Creole.

After being elected, the genealogists presented records that show that their grandparents can have of Haiti, the Dominican Republic and France.

She expected the background to help him navigate the growing cultural and spiritual diversity among church members.

“We want a Pope who can reach the peripheries and get the church out of his comfort zone,” he said. “We want a Pope for all people.”

Laurent Stalla-Bourdillon, a priest and theologian in the Diocese of Paris, said it seemed normal for the first American Pope to have a very mixed heritage.

“For us, that is the United States: mixed, many origins, many generations of migration,” he said. “It’s a melting.”

In the end, the most fundamental part of the identity of Pope Leo may not be his American or Peruvian nationality, he argued some members of the clergy and religious experts.

It may be that, from a very early age, the new lake identified as an Augustinian, a member of a religious order known for its emphasis on the missionary and community service.

“Hello, the Augustinians entered when I was 17 years old!” Cardinal Jean-Paul Vesco, the archbishop of Algiers and a member of a different order said.

“I am a Dominican. It’s another citizenship,” he said on Friday. “You belong to another reality. When you are in an order, the difference in the country arrives in second place. In your mind, I am sure that is.”

The report was contributed by AIE BALAGTAS SEE In Manila; Aurelien Breeden and Catherine Porter in Paris; Lynsey Chutel in London; Tatiana Firsova and Risen In Berlin; Jason Horowitz in Rome; Ana Ionova and Jack Nicas in Rio de Janeiro; Vjosa Isai In Toronto; Abdi Latif Dahir In Nairobi, Kenya; Ruth Maclean In Dakar, Senegal; Choe Sang-Hun in Seoul; Paulina Villegas In Mexico City, and Sui-Lee Ayes In the city of Davao, the Philippines.