Since the conclave chose Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost on May 8, many have been attentive to the signs of how Pope Leo XIV will continue or depart from the road marked by his predecessor. Observers have noticed their choice of a traditional papal name and their decision to use the red layer called MOzzetta In his first appearance in the Lodge of the Basilica of San Pedro, both signs of contrast to the unconventional Pope Francis.
However, one of the most commented evidences is not a decision of the new Pope, but something he said more than a decade ago, when a colleague and I recorded it.
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I met the future Pope Leo XIV in October 2012, one day after the end of the Synod about the new evangelization. The approach of that synod, very characteristic of the Pontificate of Benedict XVI, was the challenge of spreading and maintaining faith in increasingly post -Christian Western societies. The meaning of many speeches was summarized by Cardinal Donald Wuer of Washington, who regretted that a “secularism tsunami” was wrapping the church.
In those days, before the restrictions imposed under Pope Francis, the speeches of the participants in the sessions behind the closed door of the Synod were regularly available to the press. One of the most cited and provocative speeches was that of Fr. Robert Prevost, a prior to the order of San Agustín, who talked about how Western media promoted what he called “anti -Christian life options”, including abortion, euthanasia and same -sex marriage, and how the Catholic Church could answer.
At that time, I directed the Rome office of Catholic News Service, part of the United States Catholic Bishop Conference, and we were widely covering the Synod. I wrote to the order of P. Prevost to ask for an interview, and he quickly accepted. So, next to my colleague Robert Duncan, I went to see him to his office, a few meters from the Plaza de San Pedro.
The future Pope was Cortes, although somewhat reserved, as I remember, but was encouraged to speak of the great saint whose works are the basis of his religious order. I interviewed Fr. Premost in video on several issues, including the lessons that San Agustín offers, especially in its Confessionsto evangelize a highly individualistic society.
We also recorded Fr. Prevost reading the text of his intervention in the Synod, which my colleague Robert turned into a video into two parts, illustrated with examples of the same Western media culture as the future Pope criticized. You can see the video here.
P. Prevost responded favorably when I sent him the result of our meeting. “Thank you very much! I enjoyed seeing video presentations and I sent the links to different places,” he wrote.
I did not see Father Prevost again for more than ten years, in which he finished his mandate as superior of his order and returned to Peru, his previous mission field, to serve as a bishop of Chiclayo. When Pope Francis appointed him Prefect of Dicastery for Bishops in 2023, making him his main advisor for the choice of church leaders worldwide, I was surprised a little. The content of his speech in the 2012 Synod did not contradict, strictly speaking, nothing about the teaching of Pope Francis, but his countercultural tone contrasted with the conciliatory approach of the Argentine Pope towards secular culture.
At a reception organized by the United States Embassy before the Holy See, I met the then Prefect and reminded him of our meeting and his speech in the Synod.
“A lot of water has passed under the bridge since then,” he said, kindly but in a somewhat enigmatic way.
On 2023 consistory, when he became Cardinal Prevost, my former colleague Robert asked him if his opinions had changed regarding the controversial themes he had dealt with in his speech of the 2012 Synod.
The future Pope He replied: “Pope Francis has made it very clear that he does not want people to be excluded simply by the decisions they make, whether for their lifestyle, work, way of dressing or whatever. The doctrine has not changed, and people have not yet said, you know, that we are looking for that exchange rate. But we seek to be more welcoming and open, and say that all people are welcome in the Church.”
In his first homily as a pontiff, speaking to the cardinals in the Sistine Chapel the day after his choice, Pope Leo XIV repeated his previous comments about the hostility of secular culture towards Christianity: “Today there are also many contexts in which the Christian faith is retained an absurdity, something for weak and little intelligent people, contexts in which other securities are preferred such as technology, money, success, power or pleasure. ”
However, when meeting again with the cardinals on May 10, the new Pope declared his intention to follow the example of Pope Francis in several areas, including his “brave dialogue and confident with the contemporary world in its different components and realities.”
Now, the 2012 speech of Pope Leo XIV, captured in video, has become the basis of his pontificate’s first controversy. LGBTQ activists express His hope that this speech does not reflect the vision of the new Pope. How to handle that issue, or choose to ignore it, it will be another clue on how it intends to lead.
Translated and adapted by the ACI Press team. Originally published in the National Catholic Register.
Francis X. Rocca Francis X. Rocca
Francis X. Rocca is a senior analyst of the Vatican for Ewtn News. He has covered the Vatican since 2007, more recently for The Wall Street Journal, where he also reported on global religion. He has written for Time, The Times Literary Supplement and The Atlantic, among other publications. Rocca is the director of the documentary “Voices of the Vatican II: The participants remember the council.”