Posted on May 09, 2025 at 04:16. / Modified on May 09, 2025 at 04:31.
6 min. reading
The Catholic Church has a new face. Smiling, framed by thin rectangular glasses and gray hair, with fine lines despite a thick nose. Le Monde discovered it on Thursday at 7:26 p.m., behind a screen or in the crowd that rushed to the forecourt of the Saint-Pierre basilica in Rome. “Everyone wherever you are, all the peoples, the whole earth: peace be with you,” said the new pontiff Leon XIV from the central balcony, alias Robert Francis Prevost, or simply “bob” – his nickname. It was this 69 -year -old cardinal that the conclave chose to take the head of the Catholic Church and its 1.4 billion faithful.
Behind the choice, there is, first, an enigma. Robert Francis Prevost was born in Chicago. This simple fact should have been enough to disqualify it, explained the press Thursday in the wake of the Urbi and Orbi blessing. “It was impossible for an Etasunian, until 2025, to take the reins of this institution, out of fear, among other things, of collusion with American power”, explains Libération. A risk of collusion all the greater since “the United States is one of the most important donors in the Vatican, who is increasingly short of funds”, underlines the Wall Street Journal which also recalls that the “Church recently tended to oppose the American world power”. “This is the reason why there have been Italian popes for centuries,” notes The countrywhile Libération Formula the question at 1000 cabones: “How does this secret and even almost shy man according to those who attended him broke this law of brass?”
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