Robert Francis Prevost, the American cardinal at the service of the bishops

This evening of March 4, in front of Saint-Pierre Place filled with a collected crowd, Robert Francis Prevost, prefect of the Dicastery for the bishops, animates the prayer of the Rosary for the health of Pope Francis, then hospitalized for 17 days.

Almost a month later, the 70 -year -old man finds himself in the middle of his colleagues Cardinals to enter into a conclave in order to elect the successor of the Argentinian Pope.

American Augustine religious

Cardinal Prevost could only feel naturally close to Pope Francis, for multiple reasons. He himself is an American. North, of course, but originally from the industrial city of Chicago. He is also a religious. Certainly not Jesuit, but Augustine, of this old beggar order, three centuries older than the company.

Ordained a priest in Rome in 1982, he continued in the eternal city studies of canon law for several years, before leaving on a mission to Peru. Precisely in the territory which in 1988 became the diocese of Chulucanas. For ten years, like Bergoglio, he takes care of the training of seminarians and was prefect of studies, without forgetting his pastoral work in the parishes. Like the Argentinian Jesuit, he is also called to responsibilities in his congregation: in 1998, he is provincial of the Augustins in North America, in Chicago. He will assume two six -year warrants.

Chance or Providence? At the end of this commitment, it is all recent Pope Francis who sends it in 2014 as an apostolic administrator of another Peruvian diocese, that of Chiclayo. He was finally ordered bishop there before being called again to Rome to enter the work of Roman dicasteries, equivalent to the ministries of a government. That dedicated to priests first, then, in 2020, that dedicated to bishops, of which he became the prefect, in other words the manager, in 2023.

François’ pontificate marked his career

Created Cardinal six months later, Robert F. Prevost thus became in a few years a personality which counts in the bodies of the Vatican, accompanying the life of dioceses around the world. And thus being widely known in the hierarchical structures of the Church.

Such a journey, combining expertise and field experience, makes Cardinal Robert F. Prevost an interesting personality for this conclave time. There is no doubt that he will defend the pastoral and intellectual heritage of Pope Francis, whose pontificate has permanently marked his own personal journey.

And if Pope Francis took the problem of scandals in the church, Prevost also had, as a congregation manager, managing complex human situations. In 2000 in particular, the one who was then provincial of the Augustins authorized a religious priest of his congregation, suspended from his ministry for nine years for accusations of abuse on minors, to be accommodated in the priory of Chicago.

Lack of lucidity? Robert F. Prevost then did not warn the managers of the elementary school close to the presence in the district of this religious, preferring to assign a brother to him to tutor him on a daily basis. What the Chicago Sun-Totes denounced in his time. Finally, the religious in question was moved two years later in a less problematic place.

In an interview given last year to Vatican News, the man evokes what he understands of the place of a bishop in the synodal church today: “The role of a bishop is often understood in various ways due to the cultural factors, personal which interfere. But more deeply, the foundations of this ministry are those of a man who undertakes to serve. Because authority is a service. The bishop is not supposed to be a small prince sitting in his kingdom, but a humble man, close to the people he serves, and who walks and suffers with them to better live the Gospel in the midst of his people. A whole program.