The election of Cardinal Robert Prevost, a 69-year-old Augustinian missionary to Peru, as pope on May 8 was a signal to all that his fellow cardinals wanted someone to continue the urgent reforms and renewal of the Catholic Church initiated by his predecessor, Pope Francis. Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV, is a leader committed to human rights and dignity, to the cause of the oppressed and migrants, and to social justice. This is mainly the reason he chose the name Leo—after Pope Leo XIII, one of the most influential pontiffs who responded to the challenges of the Industrial Revolution in the late 19th century.
Leo XIII established the Catholic Church’s fundamental and powerful social teaching in his encyclical Rerum Novarum in 1891. At that time, there was immense social upheaval marked by ideological struggles between repressive socialism and uncontrolled, exploitative liberal capitalism. The vital importance of workers’ rights and the human dignity lost to mechanized forms of production, the concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a few super-rich families and corporations, and the dominance of powerful oppressive nations were all highlighted by Pope Leo XIII.
Globalization today is in a serious state, where exploited workers from impoverished communities in the developing world, toiling long hours for low wages—sometimes in inhumane conditions—produce consumer items demanded by citizens of rich nations. This will be a major challenge for the new pope.
Leo XIV is taking up that same challenge in the modern world. He recently called for peace and an end to the starvation of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, saying the elderly, the children, and the families still surviving there are “reduced to starvation.” He also said war-torn Ukraine “awaits negotiations for a just and lasting peace.”
“In this, our time, we still see too much discord, too many wounds caused by hatred, violence, prejudice, the fear of difference, and an economic paradigm that exploits the Earth’s resources and marginalizes the poorest. For our part, we want to be a small leaven of unity, communion, and fraternity within the world… in Christ we are one,” he added.
He was born in Chicago, Illinois, to migrant parents of French, Italian, and Spanish ancestry. He speaks several languages and is also a citizen of Peru, where he served as a missionary for 20 years. He will need to confront the realities of our ongoing industrial revolution, marked by the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), which is creating more unemployment, poverty, and human suffering—challenges he personally witnessed in South America.
Thousands of impoverished people, living under cruel and unjust governments in the Global South, are fleeing disasters driven by climate change and repression. They journey to the Global North as asylum seekers, refugees, and migrants in search of work—but are often rejected and banned from well-off countries. Many live in migrant camps across Europe, and many more have been deported unjustly by the current United States administration. Pope Leo XIV has great compassion for, understanding of, and solidarity with them.
“My own story is that of a citizen, the descendant of immigrants, who, in turn, chose to emigrate. All of us, in the course of our lives, can find ourselves healthy or sick, employed or unemployed, living in our native land or in a foreign country, yet our dignity always remains unchanged: it is the dignity of a creature willed and loved by God,” Leo told an audience composed of the diplomatic corps in Rome recently.
Prevost was 27 when he was ordained in 1982. He studied canon law in Rome before being assigned by his order, the Order of Saint Augustine, to serve in Peru. He became the order’s leader from 2001 to 2013, during which he visited many countries, including the Philippines. He was made the bishop of Chiclayo in northwestern Peru in 2015 and a cardinal in 2023, placing him on the path to the papacy.
Pope Francis appointed him head of the Dicastery for Bishops, a key Vatican office that oversees the selection of bishops worldwide. In that role, he came to know many bishops, their strengths and their weaknesses. One of the main challenges then—and now—is the widespread clerical child abuse crisis. Some bishops have covered up such abuse. Others have indulged in materialism, prioritizing wealth and prestige over pastoral care—dressing in fine robes, relishing the pomp, and sitting on cathedral thrones. No washing of the feet for them. Pope Leo XIV once walked in the village mud with the people—and this is what he expects from bishops everywhere.
He said, “The bishop is not supposed to be a little prince sitting in his kingdom.” A Church leader is “called authentically to be humble, to be close to the people he serves, to walk with them, to suffer with them.” Of bishops who failed to hold abusive priests accountable and concealed their crimes, he added: “Silence is not the solution. We must be transparent and honest; we must accompany and assist the victims, because otherwise their wounds will never heal.”
These are words that bring hope—that he will pursue justice for victims of clerical child abuse and end the tolerance, cover-up, and silence surrounding this heinous crime. Hopefully, he will encourage bishops to persuade abusive priests to repent and accept punishment in civil courts. Only then will the abuse truly end.
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LiCAS News was granted permission to republish and adapt this article by Father Shay Cullen in the spirit of truth-telling and the pursuit of justice.
Irish missionary Father Shay Cullen, SSC, founded the Preda Foundation in Olongapo City in 1974 to promote human rights and the rights of children, especially victims of sexual abuse.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial stance of LiCAS News.
