The Conclave Just Did the Unthinkable
What an American pope means for the Catholic Church and the world
By Francis X. Rocca

Until today, nearly every Vatican insider agreed on one thing: The United States would never produce a pope, at least not while the country remains a superpower. A citizen of the world’s dominant nation could not become the leader of the world’s largest religious organization without dramatically upsetting the global balance of geopolitical and cultural power. Or so the thinking went.

And yet, the conclave that concluded today in Rome has chosen the first American pope in the history of the Catholic Church: Robert Francis Prevost. Making the milestone even more remarkable is that Prevost was chosen on just the second day of voting by the most geographically diverse body of papal electors in history. Perhaps most surprising of all is that the Church’s first-ever American pope was selected during Donald Trump’s presidency, as Washington assumes a more contentious stance toward the rest of the world.

Prevost, who has taken the papal name Leo XIV, was born in Chicago (with the accent to prove it) and attended an American school (Villanova University), but he spent much of his adult life outside the United States. Leo led the Augustinian religious order from Rome and lived in Peru, serving as a missionary bishop. During his first speech as pope from the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica today, he switched easily from fluent Italian to fluent Spanish. Many in the Catholic hierarchy tend to identify American clergy as parochial; they will find that Leo goes against type. Given his association with Peru, some in the Vatican even talked about him as though he’ll be the second pope from Latin America—after Francis—rather than the first from America.

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Robert Francis Prevost was born on September 14, 1955, at Mercy Hospital in the Bronzeville neigborhood of Chicago, Illinois, to Mildred (née Martínez) Prevost, a librarian, and Louis Marius Prevost, a United States Navy veteran of World War II and superintendent of Brookwood School District 167 in Glenwood, Illinois.[8][9][10][11][12] His father was of Italian and French descent. His mother was the daughter of Louisiana Creole parents, Joseph Martínez from Haiti and Louise Baquié from New Orleans, who were of African, French, and Spanish descent. Martínez was of mixed Afro-Haitian descent, and Baquié was a mixed-race Black Creole.[11][13][14][15] Prevost has two older brothers, Louis and John.[11]

Raised in Dolton, Illinois, a suburb near Chicago, Prevost served as an altar boy at St. Mary of the Assumption Church on the far South Side.[11] He completed secondary education at St. Augustine Seminary High School in 1973, earning a Letter of Commendation for academic excellence, consistently appearing on the honor roll, and serving as yearbook editor-in-chief, secretary of the Student Council, and a member of the National Honor Society.[16][17] The yearbook he edited placed second in the 39th annual critique by the Columbia Scholastic Press Association at Columbia University.[17] He also participated in speech and debate.[18]

Prevost earned a Bachelor of Science in mathematics from Villanova University in 1977.[19][20] He obtained a Master of Divinity from Catholic Theological Union in Chicago in 1982,[21]and a Licentiate of Canon Law (1984) and a Doctor of Canon Law (1987) from the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Rome.[19][22] His doctoral thesis was titled "The Role of the Local Prior in the Order of Saint Augustine".[22] Villanova University conferred an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree upon him in 2014.[20]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Leo_XIV

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.