The newly elected Pope Leo XIV – Chicago-born Robert Prevost, a member of the Augustinian religious order who spent much of his life ministering to Catholics in Peru – is “a real servant of God,” who lives his life based on St. Augustine’s “core values of truth, unity, and love,” a former protégé who has known him for many years told The Independent.
In a phone interview on Thursday, Fr. Rob Hagan, who was mentored in his earlier years by Prevost, said that he at all times referred to the 69-year-old Pope as “Bob.”
Now, he said, “referring to him as Pope Leo XIV is just an honor.”
“We are so humbled and grateful for the person who he’s, and has been,” Hagan went on. “He’s incredibly vivid, he speaks multiple languages – he served a big a part of his ministry outside of the U.S., helping the poor and folks on the margins. He has an actual approachability and heat, a twinkle in his eye, he’s really a present to the church and to the world.”
Hagan said that while Prevost, a dark-horse candidate, was chosen to be the first-ever American-born Pope by the College of Cardinals, members of the Catholic community “also consider that the holy spirit could be very much guiding the method.”
“For [him] to have emerged as Pope, it’s our belief that this was the desire of God,” Hagan said. “It’s just wonderful, the peacemaker and unifier that he’s.”
St. Augustine was known for his empathy, and the order centers its work on the way to best take care of the neediest.
As an Augustinian, Prevost will naturally bring a somewhat progressive outlook, relatively speaking, to the papacy, based on Hagan. As an American, Hagan expects Prevost to bring the perfect of what the United States has historically stood for, he said.
“Do we now have problems? Yes. Are we flawed? Yes. But in case you think concerning the values upon which this country was founded: justice, peace, opportunity for all people, I believe Leo XIV will embody what’s best about American values and really serve in such a way that those values will likely be lived for all people, of all countries,” Hagan continued. “And that everybody will feel that they’re a component of the flock, and that this can be a shepherd who’s for all of the people.”
Prevost’s predecessor, Pope Francis, made some extent of focusing his papacy on those considered outsiders, reminiscent of the poor, the incarcerated, and the LGBTQ+ community. Francis, a Jesuit who served as Archbishop of Buenos Aires before becoming Pope in 2013, will “forged an extended shadow” over Prevost’s upcoming tenure, based on Prof. Erin Galgay Walsh, a scholar of ancient and late antique Christianity on the University of Chicago Divinity School.
Prevost worked very closely with Francis, and each men were students of Latin American liberation theology, with a powerful commitment to the poor, Walsh explained.
The tenets of St. Augustine are sometimes “about ensuring that every person is taken care of, and has what they need,” Walsh told The Independent.
She said she thinks Prevost will carry forward Francis’s devotion to the excluded, which he may mix with points of Pope Benedict XVI’s fame as an mental. When Walsh first heard that Prevost had been elevated to the papacy, her mind “immediately went to Pope Leo XIII.”
Leo XIII, who died in 1903, “is understood and remembered for critiquing the excesses of capitalism, and likewise socialism, and really promoting the welfare of the employee,” Walsh said, adding that Catholics can likely expect the identical from Prevost.
“An necessary message that Catholicism teaches, as we face AI and other challenges, is the dignity of labor,” Walsh said.
She sees something very poignant in Prevost’s ascension to Pope as an American who later became a dual citizen of Peru, specifically now that we live “in an age of rising nationalism and [in] a really polarized society.” Walsh thinks Prevost could function “a counterpoint” to the shape of insularity dominating politics in lots of places today.
“I at all times emphasize to my students that the Jesus movement was multilingual and multicultural from the very starting, and embraced living amongst others,” Walsh said. “[Prevost] has done that, he embodies that, and maybe offers Americans another way of fascinated with what it means to be an American.”
Raúl Zegarra, a Peruvian-born assistant professor of Roman Catholic theological studies at Harvard Divinity School, called Prevost “quite a remarkable figure.”
He also expects to see “a way of continuity” with the legacy left by Pope Francis, emphasizing Prevost’s give attention to peace during his first address as pontiff.
“The first sentence was about peace, it was the word he said probably the most in his allocution,” Zegarra told The Independent. “You cannot hear that without fascinated with the incontrovertible fact that there are multiple wars occurring without delay, and as a significant spiritual leader, the reiteration of peace is especially powerful. I believe that will signal a number of the work he should want to pursue.”
Further, Zegarra said, “the emphasis on a God that loves all of us, without limits and conditions,” was also very Francis-like.
“It sounds quite a bit like Francis, and frames the church as one which is open and welcoming, a church for all, a church that builds dialogue, that builds bridges,” Zegarra maintained.
He said it should be “not possible” for a lot of to avoid making comparisons between Prevost and U.S. President Donald Trump, but that “we are going to inevitably see radical points of contrast.” While Trump and other right-wing leaders are “type of closing up and never willing to give attention to the needs of probably the most vulnerable,” Prevost will offer a well-defined alternative, based on Zegarra.
Trump himself welcomed the brand new Pope with a Truth Social post writing, “Congratulations to Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, who was just named Pope. It is such an honor to appreciate that he’s the primary American Pope. What excitement, and what a Great Honor for our Country. I stay up for meeting Pope Leo XIV. It will likely be a really meaningful moment!”
At the identical time, many in Trump’s orbit were significantly less enthused concerning the 267th Pope.
“WOKE MARXIST POPE,” far-right conspiracy theorist and alleged Trump concubine Laura Loomer posted on social media following the announcement that Prevost had been elected.
“Of course he’s anti-MAGA and WOKE,” she ranted in a separate post. “Another Open Borders Pope. Gross.”
In a TV appearance last week, former Trump adviser Steve Bannon denigrated Prevost as one in all “probably the most progressive” candidates for the papacy, cautioning that he wouldn’t be a friend to the MAGA movement.
As MAGA influencer Vince Langman tweeted after Prevost’s selection was made public, “In case you are wondering why they picked an American to be a Pope for the primary time in history… He’s a WOKE Never Trumper liberal. That’s why!”
Conversely, to Fr. Hagan, Prevost is someone he “at all times looked as much as,” and an individual he “has at all times had an incredible deal of respect for.”
Prevost “modeled a lifestyle” that Hagan could aspire to, and has “at all times been kind to me.” Now, as Pope Leo XIV, Hagan knows his onetime mentors life will likely be very different any further.
His message to the brand new Pope?
Hagan told The Independent, “I definitely just offer my congratulations and my prayers.”
