Even before his name was announced by the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica, the crowds below chanted “Viva Il Papa” – to live the pope.
The 69 -year -old Robert Ostost will be the 267th inhabitant of St. Peter's throne and he will be known as Leo XIV.
He will be the first American to play the role of the Pope, although he is considered so much a Cardinal from Latin America because of the many years he spent as a missionary in Peru before becoming an archbishop there.
Born in Chicago in 1955 to parents of Ecuadorian and French descent, Presse served as an altar boy and was ordained a priest in 1982. Although he moved to Peru three years later, he regularly returned to the United States to serve as a pastor even before his hometown.
He has Peruvian nationality and is remembered with courtesy as a figure who works with marginalized communities and helps to build bridges.
He spent 10 years as a local parish pastor and as a teacher at the Trujilo Seminary in Northwest Peru.
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In his first words like Pope, Leo XIV spoke kindly about his predecessor Francis.
“We still hear the weak, but the always bold voice of Pope Francis, who blessed us,” he said.
“United and hand in hand with God, let us progress together,” he said in merry crowds.
He also talks about his role in the Order of Augustine. He was 30 when he moved to Peru as part of Augustine's mission.
Francis made him a bishop of Chicajo in Peru a year after he became a pope.
He is well known to the Cardinals for his high -profile role as a prefect of Dicastery for the bishops in Latin America, which has the important task of choosing and controlling bishops.
Francis made it a cardinal, less than two years ago.
Since 80% of the cardinals who participated in the Conclava are appointed by Francis, it is not all surprising that someone like Prevost has been selected, even if he has been recently appointed.
It will be considered as a figure that prefers the continuity of Francis' reforms in the Catholic Church.
Prevost is thought to have shared Francis' views on migrants, poor and the environment.
Although he is an American and will be fully aware of the divisions in the Catholic Church, his Latin American origin is also a continuity after a pope who came from Argentina.
Over his time as an archbishop in Peru, he did not escape from the sexual abuse scandals that clouded the church, but his diocese fervently denied that he had participated in every attempt to conceal.
Before the Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said that during the college college gatherings in the days before the Conclave, they emphasized the need for a pope with a “prophetic spirit capable of directing a church that does not close in itself, but knows how to come out and bring light into a world marked by despair.”