“In a world where carpenters resurrect, all things are possible” — James Goldman,The Lion in Winter (1966)Robert Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV, was born and raised in Chicago and its suburbs, educated at Villanova, a Catholic Augustinian university near Philadelphia Pennsylvania. He joined the Augustinian order of friars there, but spent most of his career as a priest and bishop in Peru. Although English is his first and native language, he is reported to be fluent in Spanish, Italian, Latin (probably required to be Pope), and others. He did not speak in English when making his first public address, preferring Italian, the first language of the majority of his live audience. As the Vatican is in the midst of Rome, and celebrating a new Pontiff has been a traditional Roman holiday, the language choice was understandable.
An American elected Pope. What does that mean? “America” was coined by a German cartographer in honor of Florentine explorer Amerigo Vespucci, referring to the continents of the Western Hemisphere: North, South, and perhaps Central America ,and associated islands. In that sense, the late Pope Francis, born and raised in Argentina, could be considered “American.” Common use has applied America, and its demonym, when unqualified, to the United States and inhabitants. Because of Leo’s peripatetic ministerial career, perhaps he is the first Pan-American Pope.
Robert Prevost’s family heritage of the Pope is illustrative. It appears that his ancestors hailed from many places. In addition to the Italian, French, Spanish, there is the Creole. The latter indicates some African heritage. Possibly, if one applies the infamous “one-drop rule” he might qualify as black. In that case, perhaps some might claim Leo to be the first African Pope. He has not.
Global Pope might be the appropriate description. Christianity, once confined to Europe and its fringes, is a global religion, and the majority of its adherents are Roman Catholic. That appellation, however, seems somewhat oxymoronic. Lower-case “catholic” is from the Greek and means universal. Other versions of Christianity describe themselves as catholic – most notably the Anglican Communion. “Roman” with the empire long gone, seems a bit parochial. Be that as it may, the ultimate definition and interpretation of the Church’s doctrine still resides in the environs of Rome.
Robert Prevost took the name of Leo as a paean to the 19th Century Leo XIII who had significant influence on American Catholics toward he end of that Century. That Leo called for fair treatment of workers and their right to unionize, criticized laissez-faire capitalism, and condemned socialism and communism. Leo XIV seems attuned to that namesake in that regard.
What might be Leo’s Norte Americano early years experience bring to the Papacy? Well, according to some sources the Vatican’s finances are in trouble and are need of reform. As President Calvin Coolidge observed on eh 1920s, the chief business of America is business. The really has not changed over the past century. Perhaps this Pope has recognized that American business know-how and will bring it to the Vatican, at least to some degree.
Because of past statements he has made, it is unlikely he will end clerical celibacy or allow the ordination of women. Changing those policies in the U. S. and other Anglophone nations might be welcomed by, at least acceptable to most Catholics in those regions, it would not be so in the so-called Global South where such policies, particularly women clerics, would be counter to local custom. The Church has been successful in large part by adapting its rituals to indigenous cultures.
The salient significance of Leo XIV may be that he is the fourth non-Italian and second non-European to be Pope, reflecting the globalization of Christianity, and the Catholic Church in particular. Latin, formerly used in liturgy, has given way to vernaculars. English is now the international language, and the United States is the premier Anglophone country. Though the European and North American components of Western Civilization have been in the process of secularization, the basic message of the once Jewish carpenter from Galilee, promulgated in a number of versions, still resonates there and has now throughout the entire world.
Note: Although it has been said that Leo XIV was the first Pope who spoke English as his native language, a letter to the editor of the Wall Street Journal corrected that misapprehension observing: “The first was Adrian IV, who was born in Hertfordshire, England, and reigned from 1154 to 1159. His birth name was Nicholas Breakspear, which certainly has a literary English ring to it. He lived during the transition from Old English to Early Middle English but was at least as much an Anglophone as most natives of Chicago.”
