Pope Leo XIV, previously often known as Robert Prevost, is the first American pontiff.
He was elected on Thursday, lower than three weeks after the loss of life of Pope Francis, and his elevation instantly made historical past. Leo grew up in Chicago, majored in math at Villanova College, and spent a long time 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 neighborhood and missionary work, with a particular emphasis on serving the poor and the weak.
These beliefs could have influenced Leo’s resolution, whereas he was nonetheless a cardinal, to share critiques of the Trump administration on-line, significantly 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 neighborhood, and then you definately love your fellow residents in your personal nation, after which after that, you’ll be able to focus [on] and prioritize the remainder of the world,” Vance stated.
Shortly after that interview, Leo shared a hyperlink to a Nationwide Catholic Reporter article titled “JD Vance Is Unsuitable: Jesus Doesn’t Ask Us to Rank Our Love for Others.”
Immediately, 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 in addition the one Augustinian college in the USA.
His dialog with Noel King, edited for size and readability, is beneath. There’s rather more within the full podcast, so hearken to Immediately, 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 buddies 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 stated, ‘Are we gonna have an Augustinian pope?’ And he stated he didn’t assume so.
Positive sufficient, a number of hours later, I bought a textual content message from my pal who stated, ‘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 gained’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 school. 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 an alternative, he went to Peru to be with the poor, to do work there, to do ministry there, and I feel that’s in some ways the guts of who he’s.
You possibly can give it some thought like this: I’ve a reasonably comfortable spot at Villanova. I’ve a home. It’s snug. To out of the blue shift gears to a completely 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 feel that’s an actual signal of desirous to be with these on the margins of world energy and economics.
I don’t assume 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 decide anyone who was extra conventional or who was seen as extra progressive, the way in which Pope Francis was. What sort of alternative 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 identify Leo, which is a reasonably conventional papal identify. 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 feel 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 feel there are some indicators that he needs to hold on quite a lot of what Pope Francis did, however possibly make extra connections, we’d say, between the type of Pope Francis facet of the church and the Pope Benedict facet.
You’ve talked about a number of instances that he’s an Augustinian. What’s an Augustinian, precisely?
The Augustinians are a gaggle of friars. They had been based in 1244, they usually’re grounded in three ideas: residing in neighborhood, a very robust sense that wherever we go, we go collectively. [A] deep sense of the guts. In case you ever see an icon of St. Augustine, he’s typically 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 very robust name to the mission to exit. The unique Augustinians typically went into cities and numerous 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, one of the crucial vital components of being an Augustinian is typically known as the order of loves. It’s this concept that our hearts must develop. Our hearts can get very slim. We will fall in love solely with ourselves. So we have to discover a solution to have our hearts develop to make room for God, who’s infinite. Whenever you make room for God, you make room for everybody, significantly for these in want. One of many huge duties of his hold forth for People — for all types of Catholics, all types of individuals — helps us broaden our hearts.
Notably, we have now a vice chairman who’s Catholic. JD Vance has spoken in regards to the order of loves. You possibly can take into consideration what he stated as having quite a lot of the correct phrases, however getting the tune incorrect. He described one of many essential 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 purported to develop, to go outward. Whereas Vance appears to be speaking about it as a approach 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 rather 2025 for a brand new pope to be retweeting criticism of a vice chairman. What do you assume it tells us about Pope Leo XIV?
I feel that he sees his workplace as a bishop, and now as bishop of Rome, as a prophetic one. He has a activity of prophetic witness. That prophetic witness goes to talk about quite a lot of issues. He’s going to talk about the surroundings. He will certainly talk about immigration. He’s going to talk about abortion. He’s going to talk about numerous issues which are going to throw American binaries off.
We’ve got to remember the fact that 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 significantly to the smallest and essentially the most forgotten. And I feel he sees that, and I feel he’s going to talk in that prophetic witness as did the popes earlier than him.
