The Lion of the Vatican
This lion emerged in the spring.
What struck me most when Pope Leo XIV first appeared on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica — were the tears glistening in his eyes as he acknowledged cheers from the crowd below. The former Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost of Chicago and Chiclayo, now the Bishop of Rome, Vicar of Jesus Christ, and spiritual head of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics, is first and foremost, human. He weeps.
According to a televised interview with his brother John Prevost aired on ABC News, the new Pope knew he wanted to become a priest even when he was still in first grade. So much so that a neighbor foretold, “He will become the first American pope.”
According to Philippine Ambassador to the United States Jose Manuel Romualdez when I asked him what the mood in DC was upon the election of an American to the papacy, he said, “They’re ecstatic.”
When I asked US Ambassador to the Philippines MaryKay Carlson how she felt, she said, “Very exciting. As a Catholic and as the US Ambassador to the Philippines, I have been touched by the expressions of love and goodwill from so many Filipinos on the assumption of Pope Leo XIV to the papacy. I join the millions of Filipinos and Americans in praying for him as he leads the global Catholic Church.”
Personally, I am elated that the new Pope has been to the Philippines, as far south as Cebu, in 2000, and 2008. He truly is a missionary.
An Augustinian friar, Robert Francis Prevost was born in the US city of Chicago, and served first as a missionary and later as bishop in Chiclayo, Peru, before being chosen by Pope Francis to succeed Cardinal Marc Ouellet.
Bishop Prevost is a dual citizen of the US and Peru. It was while he was in Peru that he forged a bond with the late Argentine pontiff.
Turning to the name chosen by the new Pope, “Leo,” Vatican press director Matteo Bruni confirmed that the decision to be called Leo XIV was a clear and deliberate reference to Pope Leo XIII, author of the 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum (Rights and Duties of Capital and Labor). That document marked the beginning of the Church’s modern social doctrine.
“In this context,” Bruni said, “it is clearly a reference to the lives of men and women, to their work — even in an age marked by artificial intelligence.”
With that encyclical, Pope Leo XIII became popularly called the “Social Pope” and the “Pope of the Workers.”
This new pope can be expected to have a bias for workers’ rights.
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Leo also means “Lion.”
Online sources say a lion symbolizes “courage, strength, power, leadership and majesty. In some cultures, the lion also represents justice, ferocity and protection.”
A lion is also a warrior and the new pope can also be a spiritual and prayer warrior. Warriors need not take up arms to win the peace, just like Pope Leo I.
Pope Leo I is known as “Leo the Great,” and is remembered for persuading Attila the Hun to halt his invasion and spare the Roman Empire from destruction. Their meeting is depicted in a 1514 painting by Raphael. In the painting, an unarmed Pope Leo – watched over by St. Peter and St. Paul – calmly confronts Attila and his army. It was perhaps the first peaceful summit in the world.
Only time will tell what Pope Leo XIV will be like. Only 69 years old, he has many years ahead of him to truly make a mark not just in the Catholic world, but in the world.
Habemus Papam!
Excepts from an interview shared by the Vatican News with then Archbishop Robert Prevost when he was appointed head of the Dicastery for Bishops by Pope Francis two years ago:
What does it mean for you to go from being a missionary bishop in Latin America to leading the dicastery that helps the Pope choose bishops?
Prevost: I still consider myself a missionary. My vocation, like that of every Christian, is to be a missionary, to proclaim the Gospel wherever one is.
Certainly, my life has changed a lot: I have the opportunity to serve the Holy Father, to serve the Church today, here, from the Roman Curia. [It is] a very different mission from before, but also a new opportunity to live a dimension of my life, which simply was always answering ‘Yes’ when asked to do a service. With this spirit, I ended my mission in Peru, after eight and a half years as a bishop and almost 20 years as a missionary, to begin a new one in Rome.
Could you offer an “identikit” of a bishop for the Church of our time?
First and foremost, he must be “Catholic:” Sometimes the bishop risks focusing only on the local dimension. But a bishop should have a much broader vision of the Church and reality, and experience the universality of the Church.
He also needs the ability to listen to his neighbor and seek advice, as well as psychological and spiritual maturity.
A fundamental element of the portrait of a bishop is being a pastor, capable of being close to the members of the community, starting with the priests for whom the bishop is father and brother. To live this closeness to all, without excluding anyone.
Pope Francis has spoken of four types of closeness: closeness to God, to brother bishops, to priests, and to all God’s people. One must not give in to the temptation to live isolated, separated in a palace, satisfied with a certain social level or a certain level within the Church.
And we must not hide behind an idea of authority that no longer makes sense today. The authority we have is to serve, to accompany priests, to be pastors and teachers.
We are often preoccupied with teaching doctrine, the way of living our faith, but we risk forgetting that our first task is to teach what it means to know Jesus Christ and to bear witness to our closeness to the Lord. This comes first: to communicate the beauty of the faith, the beauty and joy of knowing Jesus. It means that we ourselves are living it and sharing this experience.
You may e-mail me at [email protected]. Follow me on Instagram @joanneraeramirez.
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