Is the new Pope on the side of “ordinary people” – as he said when conducting his First Mass – or is he only blowing (white) smoke?
Pope Leo XIV is an historical anomaly – the first American Pope. Born Robert Francis Prevost in Chicago in 1955, he spent many years in Peru as a missionary and, as the BBC has pointed out, Prevost is considered as much a cardinal from Latin America because of the many years he spent as a missionary in Peru…He has Peruvian nationality and is fondly remembered as a figure who worked with marginalized communities and helped build bridges.
He’s criticized the current administration for its detestable anti-immigrant stance and its hateful interpretation of various tenets of Christianity but has been criticized himself for his muddled statements concerning LGBTQIA+ issues.
So who is this newly-chosen Pontiff, the man who is now the spiritual leader for over one billion Catholics around the world?
Prevost is 69 years old. In choosing the name Leo, he has consciously aligned himself with Pope Leo XIII, who was known as “the Pope of the workers” for his critique of Capitalism and support of the working class.
So far, so good. But as far as LGBTQIA+ issues, not so good. People, quoting the New York Times, informs us that in 2012 Prevost said he was pained that Western media and society created “sympathy for beliefs and practices that are at odds with the gospel,” the Times reported, specifically referencing the “homosexual lifestyle” and “alternative families composed of same-sex partners and their adopted children. …
[H]e pushed back on a plan by the Peruvian government to teach about gender in schools, the newspaper reported. “The promotion of gender ideology is confusing, because it seeks to create genders that don’t exist,” he told a local outlet, according to the Times…Francis, his predecessor, was largely seen as being more progressive and in fact surprised the world when he asked, “Who am I to judge?” after being asked a question about gay people in 2013.
Before we give the late Pope Francis his “Get out of The Vatican Jail Free” card, People also mentions that Francis signed off on a document stating “that transition surgery and gender fluidity directly opposed human dignity.”
Also troubling are claims made by the group Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) that Prevost mishandled allegations of sexual abuse by priests in Chicago in 2000 and in Peru in 2022. From CNN:
The group said that as provincial supervisor in Chicago for the Augustinian order in 2000, Prevost allowed a priest accused of abusing at least 13 minors to live at the Augustinian order’s St. John Stone Friary in Hyde Park, half a block from St. Thomas the Apostle Elementary School…“The school was never notified,” said SNAP spokeswoman Sarah Pearson. In 2002, after the US Conference of Catholic Bishops tightened their policies, [the priest in question] was moved from the priory and removed from public ministry. He was removed from the priesthood in 2012.
According to The Pillar, three Peruvian women who say they’d been abused by a priest “claim that Prevost failed in 2022 to open an investigation into the accusations of sexual abuse dating back to 2007. They say that any documentation that may have been sent to Rome was purposely designed to look inadequate so as to prevent action on the case.”
The Catholic Church is an antiquated institution that badly needs to update its responses to the contemporary world. This will take time, as institutions of any kind are as reluctant to change as they are slow about doing it. Pope Leo XIV has the authority to make some much-needed changes. Will he do it?
God only knows.
