Some First Impressions of Pope Leo XIV

Ever since the death of Pope Francis, some of us among Catholics lived some anxious moments as we were not sure whether his would-be-successor would also continue to implement the teachings of the Second Vatican Council as the late Pope had been courageously endeavouring to. On 8th May (the second day of the Conclave) around 6 pm, when white smoke appeared through the chimney above the Vatican's Sistine Chapel where the 133 Cardinals were in Conclave to elect a new Pope, such anxieties reached a climax as people from every part of Rome both believers and non-believers flooded into Vatican's St. Peter's Square to witness an historic occasion.

- REV. FR. VIMAL TIRIMANNA, CSSR

Who is he?

When the name of the 267th Successor of St.Peter was first announced officially around 7.10 pm (Roman time), the crowd cheered ecstatically as they usually do on such occasions, but most of them were asking among themselves who could this Roberto Francesco Cardinal Prevost be. After all, he was not featuring in the lists of those Cardinals who were tipped as 'Papabili' (possible papal candidates) by the journalists and other self-appointed pundits. Those who were closer to the Vatican Curia, however, immediately knew that he was the former Superior General of the Augustinians, and that he was the Cardinal Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops for the past two years or so. This writer (though he won't dare to say that he knows the new Pope), remembered immediately how simple and unassuming Cardinal Prevost was during the two recent Synodal Assemblies in Rome in October 2023 and October 2024.