Among the candidates to happen to Bergoglio, the name of Robert Francis Prevost It resonates strongly, since it is an example of the new ecclesial leadership profile promoted by the Argentine pontiff: near the peripheries, polyglot, and with pastoral experience outside the traditional European axis.
Born in Chicago in 1955, and raised in a Catholic family of workers’ roots, Prevost entered the San Agustín Order In his youth, promoted by a missionary vocation that consolidated himself with his studies of philosophy and theology in the Catholic Theological Union And later in Rome, where he was a doctorate in Canon law.
It was ordered Priest in 1982and soon a trajectory began that would take him out of the United States, moving it away from the comfort of the academic field to get at the service of peripheries.
His link with Latin America and controversies
His first ministerial years found him in Peruwhere he exercised as a missionary in a poor region of the north of the country, in the diocese of Chulucanas. There he developed a pastoral focused on the proximity, the formation of communities and the defense of human rights, an experience that deeply marked his profile: A religious committed to the social reality of Latin Americawhich learned to combine doctrinal rigor with a pastoral look attentive to the most vulnerable.
Since 2023, he occupies the strategic Post of Prefect of Dicastery for Bishops, a role that converts it In the main advisor of the Pontiff in the designation of bishops worldwide. That function, in addition to Francisco’s explicit trust, has given him a privileged place in the Vatican power structure.
As for his style, he can describe it as a sober, pastoral tone before politician, while his public profile is discreet, although not exempt from influence: In a low voice, he built networks both in America and in Rome.
Prevost also loads with controversies, since during their time in Peru, His management was questioned by alleged cover -up in some cases of abuse within his diocese. Although there are no formal charges, media complaints have stained their image, especially among the sectors that claim greater transparency in the Church.
This particular point could weigh in the conclave, where the demand for “zero tolerance” against clerical abuse became a red line. However, his ancestry among the cardinals remains firm, since he is a man of government, with the mental structure of the religious formed in Rome, but with the feet placed in the pastoral reality of the peoples farthest from power.
The approach with Latin America, does it weigh in the decision?
His fluid Spanish, his sensitivity to Latin American culture and its proximity to Francisco’s thought They make it a continuity candidatealthough without the expansive charism of the late Pontiff.
In the corridors of the Vatican, some see it as a “bridge” between two churches: the institutional and the popular; that of the global northern and the southern. In times where names of Africa, Asia and Latin America are considered, An American with Latin heart can be an unexpected letter. If the next conclave seeks a moderate but firm profile, of silent governance and global vision, Robert Prevost could emerge as a consensus figure.
With a church in full transition, marked by the challenges of secularization, internal polarization and the need to continue Francisco’s reformist legacy, the conclave that is already underway It is presented as a turning point.
Under this scenario, Prevost is emerging as a equilibrium option: sufficiently close to the ideology of the Argentine Pope to guarantee continuity, but with the institutional and sober profile that many cardinals value in times of change. If voters seek a figure that combines global pastoral experience, doctrinal training and management capacity, the name of the American cardinal could gain strength when the doors of the Sistine Chapel close.
Source: Ambito
