About two weeks ago, a television channel was discussing the election of the Pope. The anchor said that when the elector cardinals enter the Sistine Chapel and close the door and they begin to think who the next pope should be, there is a momentum taking place there. Then he said: 'Momentum' is a secular word. The Church would call it the 'Holy Spirit'. His observation was very interesting and at the same time accurate. No matter what considerations, ideas and influences from the outside come in, when they are together inside, a decision emerges from them that defies all expectations and calculations. In 2013, media outlets around the globe had published a short list of very talented, famous and influential cardinals who could be elected the pope. Jorge Mario Bergoglio was not one of them. This time too, the world's leading media outlets published their speculations and final lists. Not only the secular media, but also the Catholic media did so. Not one of them mentioned Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost as a probable candidate. Again, the same thing happens, right? All calculations made with human considerations went wrong. As the Romans say, "All who come in as popes would return as cardinals; one who came in a cardinal would reign as the pope." Meaning, against all expectations the unexpected becomes the pope.
Thus, Leo XIV is the 266th successor of the Apostle Peter. If Pope Francis was the first Jesuit to be elected pope, Pope Leo XIV is the first Augustinian to be elected pope. The Augustinian Order, of which he is a member, was a mendicant order founded in 1244, shortly after the formation of the Franciscan Order. Not many people have been elected pope from outside Italy or France. Therefore, after John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis, Leo XIV is the fourth consecutive pope from outside Italy or France. After Eastern Europe, Western Europe and South America, now North America is also on the papal map.
The first encyclical I read in my life was 'Rerum Novarum': written in 1891. It was written by Pope Leo XIII. It was the first social encyclical in the history of the Church. That is why there seems to be reason to suspect that Leo XIV will be a successor to Leo XIII. The new Pope is said to be progressive in social matters, conservative in church matters, and moderate in some areas. As someone who has served as a priest, and as bishop in the South American country of Peru, as a Prior General of the Augustinian Order, as a person who has traveled to various parts of the world and personally comprehend the ground realities in poor countries of the South, as once a member of the Vatican Dicastery for Clergy, as the head of the Vatican Dicastery for Bishops, and as a participant in the 2019 Amazon Synod and the Synod on Synodality, it is reasonable to believe that the new Pope is someone who knows exactly the situation of the world and the Church.
I remember learning a question in a old time poem like which means 'Why care to build a dam when all the water has flowed away?' The prayer at this moment is that he may be able to build the dam while there is still some water.
