The news fell in Rome this Thursday, May 8 at the end of the afternoon, it was therefore the American Robert Francis Prevost who succeeds pope Francis, who died on Monday April 21. The elected official thus becomes the 267ᵉ Pope of the Catholic Church. He chose the name of Léon XIV. In the Hainaut-Matin show this Friday, May 9, we joined Guy Harpigny, the Bishop of Tournai to find out his reaction.
Robert Francis Prevost is therefore the new pope, he is an American, Did you expect this choice?
“Not at all. He was not in the list we had in the media, but at the same time, he is someone that I consider a lot.”
How do you explain the speed of this choice so if we didn’t expect it?
“Ah! The media are little aware of what the cardinals tell between them and the objectives they have during general congregations. But the current Pope has qualities large enough to exercise this charge, if we can say. He comes from the United States, he worked in Latin America. He knows many bishops on the planet, he is religious and he also occupied responsibilities in his order.
You can say that it is someone who brings together different trends in the church …?
“We can say it. In any case, he knows the very distinct situation, very different between North America and South America, and also Europe”.
What impression did you give you during his first speech, during this first public appearance as Pope?
“He is a very simple man, I think, he mastered his emotion and, at the same time, he had a message”.
A message of peace …
“The first message, as he said himself, is Christ. So peace is with you. In a world where in some ways, there are still a lot of disorders, conflicts, tensions and wars. So start with that, it’s still not bad”.
As we know, the name that the Pope chooses sometimes also gives an indication of his policy. Léon, it was a name abandoned for a century. What does this name tell us what the Pontificate of Leon XIV will be?
“I suppose that he will explain him himself in one of his many interventions in the coming days. But in any case, what I could understand is that the last pope who was called Leon, Léon XIII, did two very different things. The first, he was really well informed of the situation of workers, workers at the end of the 19th century in businesses, and he was said, Social doctrine of the Church. End of the 19th century in France. Pope Leo XIII worked a lot the French bishops so that they really accept what the French Republic is, when we always had nostalgia against the French Revolution, which was anticlerical, etc. Pope Leon XIII, with Vigerie, who was in Algiers at that time, therefore, really made sure that there is, as they say, rallying to the Republic, therefore also at the political level. He had an influence, but in a good sense of the word, that is to say someone who said you have to work, live in the world of our time, not from the past “.
Live in the world of our time. It is also a message that Leon XIV could hear for files like the role of women within the Church, for example?
“Yes, that, we’ll see. I don’t know him enough on all the subjects, but so I only said for the name. I find that it is still interesting”.
You also closely follow the sexual abuse file within the Church. What are you expecting from the new Pope in this file?
“That he continues firmly in the line of Benedict XVI and Pope Francis. There is still a lot to do. And among the realities still to come, if you want, we are not yet sufficiently attentive to the care to be given to the victims. So therapeutic care, etc. and we are not yet enough to accompany the alleged abusers. So there is still a lot to do and I hope that, well, he will support all those who work there.”
Then Robert Francis Prevost occupied the head of the powerful Dicaster of the Bishops, which in fact made him the adviser of the previous Pope on the nominations of the bishops. So, as we know, you have been waiting for the appointment of your successor for some time. And you also talked about it with the one who became the new Pope Leon XIV last year when he came to Belgium …
“Yes, exact. So, when the Pope came in September 2024, I met Monsignor Prévost who was also present in Brussels. And he had told me a word, obviously, I retain. Patience, patience. So obviously, we are not the only diocese of the world to have a bishop who will happen. But I assume that, as he knows the situation of Belgium well.”
This appointment of your successor, it will happen fairly quickly, do you think?
I hope, yes … Yes, I think it will happen. Yes. He knows the situation well …
