Pope Leo XIV: Chicago Catholics applaud the appointment of one of his: “It will be a pope of all of us” | International

On Friday the Catholic parishioners who filled the banks of the cathedral of the holy name in Chicago. New Pope, Leo XIV.

“This is a sign, it is going to be an extraordinary Pope. South Chicago is a conglomerate of nationalities, races and people, and he has lived that. And he is is a global, American and peruvian man, who is going to be the pope of all of us,” said sister margareta, in Nigerian missionary. whose has been working as a nurso for 10 years in the area and had displaced he Thanks that the archbishopric had organized after The announcement of the new pontiff.

The cathedral showed its pride with large flags with the colors of the Vatican, white and yellow, in this area populated by six million people, of which 2.1 million are Catholics, according to the archbishop’s data. At the entrance had been placed a photograph of the new Pope, the man to whom his friends from the place where he still refers to him as Bobby.

“I would never have thought that an American Pope would see in my years of life,” says one of the priests of the cathedral, Andrew Matijevic, who confesses that he has not yet been able to adapt to the news. “I agreed with him in 2016, when he offered a mass while I passed, and I officiated with him. It is a great honor that Chicago gave a pope and I think he will bring unity to this city, in the country and in all.”

Prevost was born in the south of the city 69 years ago as a means of three brothers within a deeply believer family: two of their maternal aunts have become nuns. He studied in a Catholic school before entering the minor seminary and, from there, continued to study mathematics in Villanova, on the outskirts of Philadelphia and theology in Chicago. Ordered the priest at the age of 27.

Although he developed most of his ecclesiastical career as a missionary in Peru, where he has been bishop of Chiclayo for years and developed such an intense bond with the Andean country that the citizen has been nationalized, he regularly maintained his links with the most populated city of the state of the Illinois, where he remains registered as a republican element. He maintained them even when Pope Francis appointed him to the head of Dicastery (equivalent to a ministry in the Vatican hierarchy) for the bishops, a position of great trust.

The moment in which it was announced Who was the new pope He was particularly emotional in the cathedral. “(The managers) were all together in our offices Following the conclave And we saw white smoke, “recalls Bishop Lawrence Sullivan, vicar general of the Archdiocese of Chicago and one of the officers of Friday’s Mass.” Since there was a small delay in the internet signal, the news started to be received first on phones. And when we heard it, before it was from the United States, after he was from Chicago, and we saw him go to the balcony, he was incredibly exciting. “

The bishop believes that the election of the new pope will bring “new energy, he is already doing it”. “And I would like to continue. The Pope will transmit the message of God, a message of love, dignity, respect, concern for the poor and life. It is a message above other considerations and above politics.”

In this regard, the prelate excludes that the selection, for the first time in history, of a Pope born in the United States tries to send a political message, in convulsive times in his country of origin, when the government performs mass deportations. “Cardinals look who can be the best to direct the church and the rest is not taken into consideration,” says Sullivan. “The Pope is clearly someone who perceives as responsibility to face the whole world, not only the needs of the United States or the needs of Peru.”

“Your appointment can be a signal for the world that we can overcome our differences in culture, language, nationality and collaborate to solve outstanding problems. We have the opportunity to reconcile and have peace. I think it is significant that Pope León has started his message to people in the Plaza de San Pedro, when he appears after his appointment, when he appears after his appointment.