Pope Leo XIV spent a significant part of his life in Peru, in the part of the planet where the Catholic Church is growing most dynamically, and this was certainly taken into account during the Conclave.
This was stated by the head of the State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience, Viktor Yelenskyi, who spoke in an interview with Ukrinform.
Commenting on the fact that this is the fourth Pope who is not a native of Italy, the official noted: “This indicates that Catholicism is losing its European face, although the election of Cardinal Ratzinger as Pope was a ‘European return’. He chose the name Benedict, in honor of Benedict of Nursia, the patron saint of Europe. The fate of Europe, which in his eyes ceased to be a bastion of Christianity, was his inner pain.”
According to Yelenskyi, several factors were taken into account when electing Robert Prevost as the new Pope, including the fact that he “spent a significant part of his life in Peru, that is, in the part of the world where the Catholic Church is growing most dynamically.”
As the head of the State Service for Ethnopolitics noted, the new Pope is an Augustinian, which “testifies to his deep education.” In addition, he is a Westerner who understands the value of human rights and dignity well. At the same time, Prevost is quite conservative. In addition, he has not been in the Vatican for so long, so “he has not yet become an inveterate curial, and on the other hand, episcopal appointments have already passed through him,” Yelenskyi noted.
“I think they took all this into account when they elected him. Prevost took the name Leo XIV, which clearly refers to Leo XIII, the Pope who cared about social issues, a just peace, which, by the way, is also about a just war, an issue that Pope Francis wanted to suppress,” added Yelenskyi.
As Ukrinform reported earlier, on May 8, American Cardinal Robert Prevost was elected a new Pope.
On May 18, the enthronement mass took place in St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican.
