The Pope with a ‘twinkle in his eye’: Former protégé describes the American set to lead the Catholic Church
The newly elected Pope Leo XIV – Chicago-born Robert Prevost, a member of the Augustinian religious order who spent much of his life ministering to Catholics in Peru – is “a true servant of God,” who lives his life according to St. Augustine’s “core values of truth, unity, and love,” a former protégé who has known him for decades told The Independent.
In a phone interview on Thursday, Fr. Rob Hagan, who was mentored in his earlier years by Prevost, said that he always referred to the 69-year-old Pope as “Bob.”
Now, he said, “referring to him as Pope Leo XIV is just an honor.”
“We are so humbled and grateful for the person that he is, and has been,” Hagan went on. “He’s incredibly bright, he speaks multiple languages – he served a large part of his ministry outside of the U.S., helping the poor and people on the margins. He has a real approachability and warmth, a twinkle in his eye, he’s really a gift to the church and to the world.”
Hagan said that while Prevost, a dark-horse candidate, was chosen to be the first-ever American-born Pope by the College of Cardinals, members of the Catholic community “also believe that the holy spirit is very much guiding the process.”
“For [him] to have emerged as Pope, it is our belief that this was the will of God,” Hagan said. “It’s just wonderful, the peacemaker and unifier that he is.”
St. Augustine was known for his empathy, and the order centers its work on how to best care for the neediest.
As an Augustinian, Prevost will naturally bring a somewhat progressive outlook, relatively speaking, to the papacy, according to Hagan. As an American, Hagan expects Prevost to bring the best of what the United States has historically stood for, he said.
“Do we have problems? Yes. Are we flawed? Yes. But if you think about the values upon which this country was founded: justice, peace, opportunity for all people, I think Leo XIV will embody what is best about American values and really serve in such a way that those values will be lived for all people, of all countries,” Hagan continued. “And that everyone will feel that they are a part of the flock, and that this is a shepherd who is for all the people.”
Prevost’s predecessor, Pope Francis, made a point of focusing his papacy on those considered outsiders, such as the poor, the incarcerated, and the LGBTQ+ community. Francis, a Jesuit who served as Archbishop of Buenos Aires before becoming Pope in 2013, will “cast a long shadow” over Prevost’s upcoming tenure, according to Prof. Erin Galgay Walsh, a scholar of ancient and late antique Christianity at the University of Chicago Divinity School.
Prevost worked very closely with Francis, and both men were students of Latin American liberation theology, with a strong commitment to the poor, Walsh explained.
The tenets of St. Augustine are often “about making sure that each person is taken care of, and has what they need,” Walsh told The Independent.
She said she thinks Prevost will carry forward Francis’s devotion to the excluded, which he may combine with aspects of Pope Benedict XVI’s reputation as an intellectual. When Walsh first heard that Prevost had been elevated to the papacy, her mind “immediately went to Pope Leo XIII.”
Leo XIII, who died in 1903, “is known and remembered for critiquing the excesses of capitalism, and also socialism, and really promoting the welfare of the worker,” Walsh said, adding that Catholics can likely expect the same from Prevost.
