STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
I was listening to the radio yesterday afternoon - NPR, of course - when our colleague Scott Detrow and the rest of the team had the news live that Robert Francis Prevost, an American from Chicago, was the next pope of the Catholic Church - Pope Leo XIV. NPR religion correspondent Jason DeRose was part of that coverage and has been looking into the life of the pope from Chicago. Hi there, Jason.
JASON DEROSE, BYLINE: Hello.
INSKEEP: What do you know about Leo?
DEROSE: Well, Pope Leo is 69 years old, which makes him a bit on the younger side for popes. He was an undergraduate at Villanova University in Pennsylvania, where he majored in mathematics. Like Pope Francis, he's a member of a religious order. In Prevost's case, the Augustinians, who focus on missionary work and education. Prevost, now Pope Leo, went to seminary at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, and he did his doctorate here in Rome. He spent significant parts of his ministry in Peru. During his greeting from the balcony overlooking St. Peter's Square yesterday, though, he spoke in both Italian and Spanish but did not, significantly, I think, speak in English. And he's served on the Pontifical Commission on Latin America, a place he knows well given his time in Peru.
INSKEEP: What sense do you have at this early moment about what style of pope he might be?
DEROSE: Well, here's what Cardinal Prevost told the Vatican's official news agency prior to his election as pope about what he thinks church leadership should be.
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POPE LEO XIV: The bishop is not supposed to be a little prince sitting in his kingdom but rather called authentically to be humble, to be close to the people he serves, to walk with them, to suffer with them and to look for ways that he can better live the gospel message in the midst of his people.
DEROSE: And, Steve, that's very similar to what Pope Francis was fond of saying, that a pastor who's a shepherd should smell like his sheep.
INSKEEP: I've noticed that already there are some criticisms of Pope Leo.
DEROSE: That's right. Survivors of clergy sexual abuse say Cardinal Prevost did not do enough to address the issue as a bishop or archbishop or cardinal. But, Steve, that's true of many in church leadership. Now the question is how he'll respond to victims going forward and how he handles abusive priests and those who covered up for them. He's also come under criticism for comments on LGBTQ people. Back in 2012, he lamented what he called the culture's sympathy with, quote, "the homosexual lifestyle." And he spoke out against a government plan in Peru to teach about gender in public schools. He called promotion of, quote, "gender ideology" confusing and said such thinking creates genders that don't exist.
INSKEEP: I noticed that there are some hard-core supporters of President Trump who seem to assume that he is going to be opposed to President Trump. They're applying that blue-red filter of the United States onto the pontiff. What are his politics to the extent that they're known?
DEROSE: Well, I think that he was a close ally with Pope Francis, and as such, will probably be willing to stand up to the Trump administration in the same way that the Vatican has for the last dozen years - talking out against the treatment of migrants, talking out against the treatment of people in Gaza and the way the war is being conducted there. So it could be somebody who's willing to go head-to-head, and a very prominent American figure willing to go head-to-head with another prominent American figure, the American president.
INSKEEP: Absolutely. Isn't it surprising that it would be an American pope?
DEROSE: Well, I think it's stunning. Prevost's name had come up, of course, because of his position there in the Vatican. He's considered well-qualified given his pastoral and administrative experience. But the U.S. is not the center of the Catholic world, and Vatican watchers said the U.S. has enough global power already. And the church, you know, Steve, is far more vibrant in other places, places where it's growing like in Latin America and Africa and Asia. You know, Pope Francis, in fact, dramatically diversified the College of Cardinals during his papacy to reflect that. So many more cardinals from other parts of the world but ones who chose an American. It is important to note that while Pope Leo is from the United States, he spent much of his life and ministry outside of the U.S. in Peru and at the Vatican. So he does bring a truly global perspective for the job.
INSKEEP: Jason, thanks for your perspective.
DEROSE: You're welcome.
INSKEEP: That's NPR religion correspondent Jason DeRose. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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