The American Robert Francis Prevost, 69, who became Thursday under the name of Léon XIV the first pope in history from the United States. For the president of the Conference of Bishops of France, Eric de Moulins-Beaufort, the choice of this name of reign is “a beautiful promise”.
The choice of the new Pope to adopt the name of Léon XIV, known for his reflection on social issues, is “a great promise”, estimated on Thursday with AFP the president of the Conference of Bishops of France, Eric de Moulins-Beaufort.
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“A very wide opening and experience”
“I am first very happy that the Pope is elected, and so quickly,” said the head of the Church of France, after the election at the head of the Catholic Church of the American Robert Francis Prevost. “It is an Etasunian, but who lived a lot in Latin America, with a very wide opening and experience,” said Mgr de Moulins-Beaufort, who will leave his functions in June.
“The name of Léon XIV is also a great promise. The pontificate of Léon XIII had been marked at the end of the 19th century by very great encyclicals, in particular on the social doctrine of the Church and on the workers’ condition, he had thought a lot about political and social freedom,” continued the Archbishop of Reims.
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-The new pope “will have his way, which will not be a copy of that of Pope Francis”, but with his first words “he was in continuity, not only by evoking the appearance of Pope Francis at Easter, but also by speaking of a Church on the move and calling all men to build bridges”, added the French official.
“Great listening qualities”
Archbishop of Moulins-Beaufort recalls that he regularly met the Cardinal Prevost, who was at the head of the Dicaster of the Bishops, in the Vatican, and had accompanied the Pope during his visits to Marseille, in September 2023, and in Corsica, in December 2024.
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“I had the chance to be able to chat with him on these occasions. I know him as a gentle, attentive, precise man capable of decision,” he said. The Archbishop of Paris for its part praised the “great listening qualities” and the “humility” of the new pope.
“In his first greeting to the church and the world, he calls us to build together (…) a missionary church, which builds bridges, a church in dialogue, always open to all,” notes in a press release Laurent Ulrich, who will chair a mass on Friday evening at Notre-Dame cathedral for Leon XIV.
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In Lyon, Archbishop Olivier de Germay will do the same on Friday at the Saint-Jean primatial. He praised in a press release the fact that the new pope “insisted on peace” during his first speech, “the day of the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War”.
