By FR SAJU
“Peace be with all of you!” these were the first words of Pope Leo XIV (Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost) who is the first Augustinian Pope in the history of the Church. The words of hope and mission were amplified in his speech from the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica.
Read more: Pope Leo XIV: ‘We will go forward’The Pope said, “God loves us, all of us, evil will not prevail. We are all in the hands of God. Without fear, united, hand in hand with God and among ourselves, we will go forward.”
The new Bishop of Rome was born on 14 September 1955, in Chicago, Illinois, to Louis Marius Prevost, of French and Italian descent, and Mildred Martínez, of Spanish descent. He has two brothers, Louis Martín and John Joseph.
At the age of 27, Leo was sent by his Augustinian Order to study Canon Law at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) in Rome. He was ordained a priest on 19 June 1982, at the Augustinian College of Saint Monica, Rome.
In 1988, he was sent to Peru on mission and got involved in the formation of seminarians, lecturer at the Major Seminary “San Carlos y San Marcelo” and pastor. In 1999, he was elected Provincial Prior of the Augustinian Province of “Mother of Good Counsel” in Chicago, and two-and-a-half years later, the ordinary General Chapter of the Order of Saint Augustine, elected him as Prior General, confirming him in 2007 for a second term.
Pope Francis appointed him on 3 November 2014 as Apostolic Administrator of the Peruvian Diocese of Chiclayo and on 26 September 2015 he was appointed Bishop of Chiclayo and then created Cardinal on 30 September 2023.
Pope Leo XIV in his first homily as the Pope during the Mass with the Cardinals in the Sistine Chapel recalled the mission of the faithful to witness the joyful faith in the risen Lord. He said, “Even today, there are many settings in which the Christian faith is considered absurd, meant for the weak and unintelligent. Settings where other securities are preferred, like technology, money, success, power or pleasure.
“A lack of faith is often tragically accompanied by the loss of meaning in life, the neglect of mercy, appalling violations of human dignity, the crisis of the family and so many other wounds that afflict our society.”
Let us in this journey nourish our personal relationship with Jesus to go forward as pilgrims of hope.