Papabile (pope tip) Robert Francis
Prevost, 70 years old, is a curious figure of a "Latin American
Yankee" - and for this reason he could become the candidate for
pope of the cardinals of North and South America, very large
groups.
Prevost is a cardinal of the Curia, close to laye Pope Francis.
Since 2023 he has been prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and
president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.
In the same year he received the purple. Born in Chicago to a
family of French origin, an Augustinian, he graduated in Canon
Law. From 1985 to 1999 he was a missionary in Peru. Back in
Chicago, in 2001 he became prior of the Order of St. Augustine,
a position he held until 2013. In that year he returned to Peru,
as bishop of Ciclayo. Francis called him to Rome in 2023. The
American bishop, who speaks fluent Spanish, Portuguese, Italian
and French, had shown particular attention to the marginalized
and migrants in Peru, much appreciated by Francis.
As prefect for the bishops, he appointed hundreds of prelates,
forging a generation of "Francis-like" religious, open and
progressive.
Prevost earned a reputation as a reserved and balanced cardinal.
In 2023 he managed together with the secretary of state Parolin
the problem of the German Synodal Path: a debate within the
German dioceses that was becoming too innovative, and risked
causing a schism.
Prevost brought the path back to orthodoxy, but without trauma.
The votes of Latin American cardinals, who do not have strong
candidates, and of the Americans, too divided between
progressives and conservatives, could converge on his name.
Prevost can count on the support of the powerful Honduran
cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga: formerly Francis's
"pope-maker", he is now over eighty and out of the conclave, but
is still very influential.
However, the American prelate is burdened by a couple of
accusations of having covered up sexual abuse by priests, in
Chicago and Peru.
Last year, Prevost and his successor in the capital of Illinois,
Blaise Cupich (also a progressive and a papal candidate) were
denounced for not having taken action between the 1980s and
1990s against two Augustinians, later convicted of abuse.
In Peru, the prefect for bishops was accused by three sisters of
having covered up their complaint of having suffered sexual
abuse by two priests.
The diocese of Ciclayo explained that the then bishop had
advised them to file a complaint with the civil authorities, and
that the canonical process had been interrupted when the
judiciary had archived the proceedings due to the statute of
limitations.
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