AND RYAN HAMILTON-DAVIS
LEADERS in TT, including new Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissesar, have joined the international community in congratulating the Catholic Church as it elected its 267th pope on May 8. In particular, Persad-Bissessar wished for the new pope's "success and enriching stewardship" of the church.
The new pope is Chicago-born Robert Francis Prevost. Prevost will be the first elected Pope from the US in history.
He is taking on the name Leo XIV.
Born in 1977, the 69-year-old Prevost entered the novitiate (as a novice) of the Order of Saint Augustine in the province of Our Lady of Good Counsel in St Louis.
He gave his vows in August 1981 and studied at the Catholic Theological Union of Chicago, receiving his diploma in theology.
He began studying canon law at the Pontifical Saint Thomas Aquinas University at 27, where he received priestly ordination on June 19, 1982. After receiving his licence in 1982, he was sent to work in the mission of Chulucanas in Pirua, Peru, from 1985.
In 1987 he was awarded a doctorate with the thesis: 'The role of the local prior in the order of Saint Augustine.'
That year he was also elected director of vocations and the missions of the Augustinian province of Olympia Fields in Illinois.
He served as a community prior and director of a joint mission in Trujillo up until 1992 and taught in the archdiocese of Trujillo until 1998.
In 2020, Prevost was appointed apostolic administrator of the diocese of Callao by Pope Francis. He was later appointed as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America in 2023.
Prevost was among 133 cardinal electors that entered the conclave in the Sistine Chapel after Pope Francis' death on April 21.
The conclave gathered on May 7, 16 days after Francis' death. The two-day conclave went to two votes before the result was announced.
After he was announced, the new pope exited the Sistine Chapel in traditional papal vestments to greet the people at Vatican City.
'Dearest brothers and sisters, this is peace of the resurrected Christ, the good shepherd who has given up even his life for God. I should also like this greeting of peace to enter our hearts and your families and to all people wherever they are. All people throughout the world. Peace be with you.
'This is the peace of the resurrected Christ, a humble and persevering peace which comes from God.
Congratulations from around the world have already begun to pour in, including from TT.
During the post-cabinet media briefing on the day of his appointment, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar congratulated the Roman Catholic community on the election of the new pope.
'As we pray for his success and enriching stewardship of the Roman catholic church, we also congratulate him on the very historic occasion of becoming the first pope of American origin,
'The Roman Catholic church has always played a pivotal role in our global community from human development to spiritual enlightenment. Given the many chal
