How a Quiet American Cardinal Became Pope

The cardinals chose a new Pope to lead the Roman Catholic left the Sistine Chapel exhausted and hungry.

A meditation to start the conclave had dragged and pushed his first vote on Wednesday night. It had resulted in an inciting account, with three main contenders. Keeping their secret vote, they returned to Casa Santa Marta, the guest house where they were kidnapped without their phones, and began to speak.

On dinner, when a gluten -free cardinal chose on vegetables and others shrugged with the simple rate, they weighed their options. Cardinal Pietro Parolin, 70, the Italian who directed the Vatican with Pope Francis, had entered the conclave as a favorite but had a winning winter support. The Italians were divided, and some of the cardinals in the room had bothered for their failure to emphasize the collaboration meetings that Francis prioritized to govern the Church.

Cardinal Peter Erdo or Hungary, 72, backed by a coalition of conservatives that included some African supporters, had no way to generate impulse in an electorate widely designated by Francisco.

That left Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, 69, a quiet American dark horse who had surprises in the vote of the night as a source of particular interest.

A missionary turned into a religious leader, turned into a Peruvian bishop, turned into a power player of the Vatican, reviewed many of the boxes that a wide range of cardinals hoped to fill. Its apparent ability to be two places at the same time, North America and the South, pleased the cardinals on two continents. When the Pasthes sounded from the Latin American cardinals who knew him well, they liked what they heard.

Duration of dinner, Cardinal Prevost Avoided Any policy or obvious machination, the cardinals said. The next morning, he had become a giant of suffocation that finally left little space for rival candidates and ideological fields.

“You start seeing the direction and you say:” Oh, my God, I will not wear my five days of clothing, “” Cardinal Pablo Virgilio Siongco David of the Philippines joked. “It will be resolved very fast.”

Interviews with more than a boxes of the cardinals, who could disseminate only so much due to the rules of secret that carry the penalty of excommunication, and the accounts of the Vatican experts told the story of how Cardinal Prevost became Pope Leo XIV. The rapid, impressive and taboo consensus goes around an American who is not familiar with many outside the Church came Thursday among an attractive University of Cardinals with many new members who did not know each other. They had different interests of interest, language and priorities, but a single option.

Building support

After Francis’s death on April 21, the cardinals around the world arrived in Rome. They joined powerful players in the Vatican who directed the bureaucracy of the Church, including Cardinal Prevost, whose Francis career had increased.

Despite his intimate understanding of the Vatican, Cardinal Prevost was still among the rookies, since he had been a cardinal even for two years. And I had questions about the conclave.

He turned to one of the reported front corridors, Cardinal Luis Antonio Gokim Tagle of the Philippines, to get help.

“How does this work?” “The American said, according to Cardinal Tagle, who reported the conversation.” I had experience in a conclave, “said Cardinal Tagle,” and did. “

Unlike Cardinal Tagle, hey, also the recognition of name considered necessary in a choice among so many new cardinals that were barely known. Without a high profile or obvious support base, the Villanova graduate born in Chicago moved below the radar.

“I didn’t know his name,” said Cardinal David of the Philippines.

But Cardinal Prevost was not a complete stranger. As former leader of the Order of San Agustín, who operates throughout the world, and as head of the Vatican office that supervises the bishops of the world, he had developed powerful connections and sponsors. First among them it had been Francis, who put his career on the fast track. And his decades in Peru, Spanish with fluidity and leadership of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America gave him deep and decisive relations in the continent.

“Almost everyone knows him. He is one of us,” said Cardinal Baltazar Enrique Porras Cardozo or Venezuela, who has known him for decades.

In the weeks before the conclave, the cardinals participated in a series of private meetings to discuss their concerns about the future of the Church. Unlike Francis, who left his mark with a brief speech sharing his vision for the Church, several cardinals said that Cardinal Prevost comments did not stand out. “Like everyone else,” said Cardinal Juan José Omella or Spain.

Cardinal Jean-Paul Vesco or France, the archbishop of Algiers, Also Coul Not Recall What The American Had Said, But He Got To Talk To Him On The Sidelines of The Meetings – Which was Important, He Said, Besta it was increasingly Being Talked About As a candidate based on His “Incredible” Rés Kende rasumé to the Résumé Résumée Résumé Toesume Toesum. The cardinal began asking people who had worked with the American for Gordo, and learned that he mentioned it and worked well in groups. “I did my job,” said Cardinal Vesco. “I have to vote. I have to meet the person.”

Cardinal Wilton Gregory of the United States also said that Cardinal Prevost had involved “quite effective” in smaller group discussions with cardinals.

That most intimate configuration was played with the strengths of the Cardinal Premost, since it had gained a reputation around Rome as a collaborator of study, collegial and organized, as a head of the department of Vatican.

“I admire the way he runs a meeting,” said Cardinal Blase J. Cupich of Chicago, his hometown. “I mean, that is difficult to do, when you have people of different slimps and language cultures, and you are trying to advise a Pope about who should be a bishop, and you are listening to all those people.”

On Saturday, May 3, five days before the conclave, the cardinals took lots and assigned key roles. With 127 of the 133 who finally voted in assistance, Cardinal Prevost was chosen to help execute daily meetings before being kidnapped and voting.

As the different factions argued in these daily meetings about the future direction of the Church, the cardinals of the Americas seemed to merge around them.

Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan from New York, an open figure and gregarious, said he tried to better learn his American partner at a breakfast.

Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller or Germany noticed an electoral base that seemed to be forming, saying: “It is a good number or cardinals of South America, North America.”

Cardinal Porras of Venezuela said that the Cardinals of Latin America and the United States seemed on the same page on Cardinal Prevost. “When you have friendship first,” he said, “everything is easier.”

The more the Cardinal Premost learned, the more they liked them, the cardinals said. “Bob, this could be proposed for you,” said Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin of Newark, NJ, told Cardinal Prevost shortly before Begen the conclave.

Cardinal Prevost had a lot of experience they were looking for, said Cardinal Vincent Nichols of England. He had the heart of a depth and knowledge of the missionary, academic world. He had directed a diocese as a bishop, which put him in close contact with the parishioners, but he had also worked in the curia, the novel Cracy desktop that helps govern the church.

He did not escape the cardinals, said Cardinal Nichols, that Cardinal Parolin, the main diplomat of the Vatican, who was pushed by his supporters inside and outside the conclave, a deep experience only in the bureaucracy of the church.

“We are not stupid,” he said.

Quickly changing fortune

On Wednesday, after a long and solemn procession in the Sistine Chapel, the cardinals gathered in their assigned seats and touched their votes. Just before 6 pm, the doors closed for the beginning of the conclave.

The meditation at the beginning, he comments on the seriousness of the task in question, worked approximately one hour, so much time that Cardinal Parolin, who directed the conclave, asked them if they wanted to call it one night and delay the first vote until the next morning.

“We did not have dinner, and there were no breaks, pauses for the bathroom, said Cardinal David of the Philippines, but the group decided that he wanted a vote.

As the vote began around 7:30 pm, the delay, without explanation for the outside world, stirred among the crowds they expected. It seemed perhaps that the cardinals had already chosen a Pope who was dressing to go to the balcony.

Instead, the first vote of that night amounted to what Cardinal Omella or Spain called “a kind of preliminary survey.”

“In the first vote, there were several candidates who won significant votes,” said Cardinal Lázaro Yougung-Sik of South Korea, according to the South Korean news agency Yonhap. Vatican’s experts said those candidates included Cardinals Parolin, Erdo and Premost.

It was then that the cardinals returned to the guest house and began to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of men.

“Once we are in Santa Marta, there was talk of individual candidates,” said Cardinal Nichols of England. “That is what we are supposed to do.”

Cardinal Müller of Germany, a prominent conservative critic of Francisco to whom the late Pope had triggered from his position as the main doctrinal official of the Church, said he spoke with Latin Americans about the previous Premost and told him that “it was not divisive.”

Cardinal Premost climate seemed to be increasingly positive. The choice approached him.

The votes of the next morning, the second and third of the conclave, made clear the image.

“In the fourth vote, the tickets moved too much” to Cardinal Prevost, said the Cardinal of South Korea.

Cardinal Müller sat in front of the American front in the Sistine Chapel and noticed that he seemed calm. Cardinal Tagle, who sat next to Cardinal Prevost, noticed that he breathed deeply when the votes accumulated in his favor.

“I asked:” Do you want a sweet? “And he said ‘Yes,’ said Cardinal Tagle.

Duration one of the votes, Cardinal Tobin, while maintaining his high ballot and put it in the urn, turned and saw Cardinal Prevost, whom he had met for about 30 years.

“Take a look at Bob,” said Cardinal Tobin of New Jersey, “and had his head in his hands.”

Later in the afternoon, they voted again, then the ballots counted one by one. When Cardinal Prevost reached 89 votes, the two -third majority threshold needed to become a potato, the room exploded in a standing ovation. “And he sat down!” Cardinal David said. “Someone had to lift it. We were all an eye of tears.”

As the count continued and the votes for the Cardinal Prevost approached the triple digits, Cardinal Parolin had to ask them to sit down so they could finish.

“Hello, they obtained a great, very big majority of the votes,” said Cardinal Désé Tsarahazana or Madagascar.

After their choice, the Cardinals enthusiastically congratulated the new Pope. A brief and coincident conclave was finished and Leo XIV crossed the Cames Curtains on the balcony of the Basilica of San Pedro and the world stage.

Cardinal Tagle, the favorite of the days before, the American had asked him about the rules, said: “If there is something you want to change about the rules of the conclave, now everything is in your hands.” “

AIE BALAGTAS SEE Reported Manila reports; Josephine de la Bruyère from the city of the Vatican; and Choe Sang-Hun Of Seoul.