RomaIt has been more than four months since the white smoke of the Sistine Chapel announced the election of a new pope, and even today, there are few who dare to draw a more or less accurate profile of Lion XIV. American journalist Elise Ann Allen, Rome correspondent in the Catholic medium Cruxit does in the book Lion XIV: Citizen of the World, 21st Century missionarywhich includes the first interview with Robert Prevost since his election in the Chair of Sant Pere.
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“He is a very simple, calm person. He does not seek attention, he is sympathetic, sincere and very smart,” says Allen, who interviewed the pope this summer in his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo and at the Vatican apostolic palace.
The experienced correspondent met Robert Prevost in Peru – then he was the archbishop of the Chiclayo diocese – when he investigated abuses within the Ultracatolic Group of Peruvian origin, a sodali of Christian life, which was dissolved by Pope Francis shortly before he died on considering that the organization acted as a sect. Following the election of Prevost as a pope, Allen decided to write his first biography and asked for an interview to complete the book. “Surprisingly, he accepted.”
In the volume, which this week has been published in Peru and in October it will arrive in Spanish bookstores with the publisher Debate, León XIV claims a line of continuity with its predecessor, but without drastic changes in the doctrine. The pope is shown as a cautious and reflective leader. It makes it clear that he has no intention of ordering women as priests, and at the same time assures that he will host all the faithful, including LGBTQ+Catholics. He argues that marriage is “between a man and a woman” and defines the family as “father, mother and children”.
Secrecy
“ His main concern is wars in the world and the divisions between Catholics, between society, how the world is so polarized and how this breaks humanity, ” revealed the journalist.
Since his election, Leon XIV has continued to condemn the war in Ukraine and the “horrible” Israeli offensive in Gaza, which he refuses to define as genocide. “Officially, the Holy See does not think we can make a statement at this time. There is a very technical definition of what a genocide could be,” he told the book.
Unlike his predecessor, Leo XIV has preferred to stay in the background background since his choice; He does not give great headlines or improvised speeches, he did not even appear in the historical concert by the “human fraternity” held in the Vatican with international artists such as Karol G. However he maintains an intense agenda, which led him to receive the President of Israel, Isaac Herzog, after the allegations against the Israeli army massacre on the population of Gaza Open a Diplomatic Conflict. The Holy See and Tel-Aviv.
But, as he warns in his first interview, Leon XIV does not see himself as an international leader who has to solve the problems of the world or to be immiscal in the internal policy of any country, especially his. “I have no planning involved in partisan politics. The Church is not about this,” he said, answering a question about United States President Donald Trump.
Last week, the pontiff handed the credentials to the new Washington ambassador Brian Francis Burch. An entrepreneur, leader of the ultra -conservative group Catholic Vote. “A devotee Catholic and father of nine children,” Trump defined him. The news was that it seems to leave behind the clashes that Francesc maintained with the tenant of the White House due to his migratory policy.
To date, the pontiff has maintained the main people in charge of the Dicasteris and Vaticans, appointed by its predecessor, but it is expected that from the coming months it will begin to draw the profile of its pontificate with the choice of new names. The most immediate, probably, will be that of his replacement at the head of the Bishops’ Dicasteri and the Pontifical House Prefect, the German Monsignor Georg Gänswein, at the same time, at the same time secretary of Benedict XVI, whom Francesc forced to resign and sent to the Baltic countries as a nuncio. He is also preparing his first encyclical, a document in which he will reflect on poverty, according to specialized media, which will be key to start deciphering the enigmatic Lion XIV.
