From AP:
The people of northern Peru call him el obispo. Sometimes he is also Padre Prevost. Maybe when the shock wears off, they will get used to his new title, Pope Leo XIV.
Waiters, taxi drivers, teachers and others — faithful or otherwise — saw the Rev. Robert Prevost around their communities for 20 years, eating ceviche, singing Christmas songs and partaking in everyday activities. But he also walked through flooded streets to reach the needy and drove to remote villages to hand out blankets. Many sat a few feet away from him while he delivered succinct sermons. They can all now say they know the Pope. “He’s a very simple man,” said Alejandro Bazalar, whose feet Leo washed during a Holy Week ceremony in the city of Chiclayo, where Leo lived for nine years. “We Chiclayanos never imagined that God’s representative on Earth would live among us.”
From Axios:
The Vatican’s veil of secrecy is beginning to lift, shedding light on how 133 cardinals from around he world unexpectedly coalesced behind Chicago native Robert Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV.
The big picture: Prevost benefitted from being the “least American” of the U.S. cardinals, from being an acolyte of Pope Francis’ but not a “photocopy,” and from his reputation as a good listener and quietly effective administrator, his fellow cardinals revealed on Friday. Prevost was hardly mentioned in pre-conclave media coverage and was a non-factor in the betting markets — but he was the subject of intense interest among his fellow cardinals in the days between their arrival in Rome and the start of the conclave.
WATCH AN INTERVIEW WITH HIM IN 2023
From Fox News:
Papal names are often very symbolic with regard to how a Pope will serve as the leader of the Catholic Church. Typically, Pope’s select the names of predecessors they admire or want to emulate. Prevost ultimately went with Leo XIV in honor of Pope Leo XIII, who served from 1878 to 1903.
“He could have been Francis II, and we would have said, ‘Oh, there he is clearly in the line of Francis.’ He could have been John Paul III, then we would have thought, ‘Oh, he’s very much in that more conservative line.’ He could have been John XXIV, and we say ‘Oh, now he’s a real revolutionary liberal, et cetera,'” Barron said. “The fact that he went back, well over 100 years, to this very interesting and pivotal figure … our new pope was saying, I too, want a critical engagement with the modern world, not simply a ‘no,’ but also not simply a ‘yes,’ not simply an acquiescence to it.”
From The New York Times:
Robert Francis Prevost, the Chicago-born cardinal selected on Thursday as the new pope, is descended from Creole people of color from New Orleans. The Pope’s maternal grandparents, both of whom are described as Black or mulatto in various historical records, lived in the city’s Seventh Ward, an area that is traditionally Catholic and a melting pot of people with African, Caribbean and European roots.
The grandparents, Joseph Martinez and Louise Baquié, eventually moved to Chicago in the early 20th century and had a daughter: Mildred Martinez, the Pope’s mother.
