A new Holy Father of the Roman Catholic Church has been appointed in Rome and has taken the name of Leo XIV. We spoke with Donald Bolen, Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Regina, to get his reaction.
The new pope is Robert Francis Prevost, an American from Chicago who spent many years as a bishop in Peru, where he also holds citizenship.
Bolen was appointed as Archbishop of Regina in 2016 by Pope Francis, the new pope’s predecessor.
“Well, it was a little bit of surprise,” the archbishop admitted. “There’s an old saying that if you go into the Conclave a pope, you come out as a cardinal — in other words, the person who seems most likely to be elected is not chosen. And that was the case.
“When the cardinal who announces the new pope gave the first name, it wasn’t one of the names I was expecting. But I’ve been hearing lots about Cardinal Prevost in the last couple of years, and hearing many good things about him, and he was certainly mentioned in various conversations about a possible candidate for papacy.”
Bolen said that, like many people, he is now reading everything he can about the new pope in hopes of getting to know him. However, he was encouraged by Leo XIV’s first address. He said it was a beautiful wish for peace in the world, an honouring of Pope Francis and Francis’ priorities, and an affirmation of the need for the Catholic Church to be a force for constructive dialogue in world affairs.
“Those are all good signs, for me,” he said.
Part of the reason that Prevost was chosen, Bolen said, is probably that the world is in a perilous state, with many wars, millions of refugees, and political upheaval.
“I think the Cardinals took note of that and they noted that we need a pope who’s going to be able to speak to the world’s deepest struggles, and I think they’ve chosen him in part because he’s a good candidate to do that.
“He really brings an international experience. He’s an American, but he spent much of his life ministering in Peru, in fact, he was elected a bishop to serve in Peru. He’s the head of an international community called the Augustinians, he’s worked in Rome, and the last couple of years, he’s been the head of the office for choosing bishops in consultation with the Pope. And he speaks many languages, and from what we saw (yesterday), he speaks them well.”
The new Pope Leo XIV first addressed huge crowds at the Vatican in Italian, then switched to Spanish. He didn’t do English, Bolen chuckled — everybody knows he speaks English.
Prevost indicated a lot of continuity with his predecessor, Francis, for his opening speech, but Bolen noted that Prevost didn’t choose Francis II as his name. He could have, but he went instead with a name that many previous popes have taken; that of one of the great popes of early church history (in the fifth century AD), and a name that has been honoured ever since.
“Saint Leo the Great helped to define church doctrine,” Bolen explained. “The last Pope Leo, the 13th, issued the first major social encyclical of the church. That’s when the church started to speak very directly into social issues, into justice-related issues, to point to the rights of the poor, to the need to assert the human dignity of everybody. So, he’s placed himself in that tradition.”
Nevertheless, Bolen is confident the new Holy See will not lead the church exactly as Pope Francis did, in part because Prevost has a doctorate in Canon Law from the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Rome.
“Pope Francis was a very charismatic, pastoral person, whose gestures often spoke more loudly than his words. Our new pope is a canon lawyer, who’s probably going to be very precise in his language.”
Bolen said reactions locally have been somewhat mixed. There are many Filipino priests in the Regina Archdiocese, and they were mildly disappointed that Philippine Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle was not chosen.
Nevertheless, everyone is excited.
“We’re ready to pray for Pope Leo, to walk with him, to hear what he’s asking of us in terms of leadership, and really to begin a new chapter in the life of the church.”