In Peru they feel the new Pope Leo XIV as his. The priest who was proclaimed Peruvian by choice When he decided to adopt Peruvian nationality after more than 20 years of living and surviving terrorism, hyperinflation, floods and constraints of being a pastor of mostly poor communities and extreme poverty, but that always followed him.
As soon as the name of the new Pope, Robert Francis Prevost, the bells of the Cathedral of Chiclayo, a city north of Peru, began to play. The doors of the churches and parishes opened from par and some people between incredulous and excited And as attracted to a magnet they began to enter to pray and even cry with joy. They had already heard Father Robert’s masses now turned into a potato, they had already crossed him down a street, he had already blessed them in some procession or had baptized their children. In Chiclayo and Peru it is the Peruvian Pope.
«We all remember that Pope Leo XIV was here before, with us. He lived with us for many years. We are very happy. Today there is a feast of hope, ”he says excitedly to La Razón, from Chiclayo, the priest Elky Segura, pastor of the parish of the Lord of Miracles. And he remembers it as someone very close to the people, who always confused among people as one more. «He was always with everyone, but mainly with the most needy and humble. He also went to all religious and popular festivities such as La Cruz de Motupe or Corpus Christi because he wanted to be close to the people and take the church to the people ».
Segura says that they lived a devastating climate phenomenon of El Niño and Father Robert was always aware of the victims, helping people who had lost everything. In the photos of the time he is seen with the water boots on, in the middle of the flooded city, lend to help and with his feet on the tragedies of the neighbor. Likewise, at the time of the COVID, the Secure pastor remembers him leading campaigns to get oxygen and in full isolation, with his mask on, visiting hospitals, without fear of infection. «As bishop had a deep inner life that led him to express it in his acts always service to others. I never ordered, preferred to listen, always serene, respectful and close. As priests we didn’t have to ask for a audience or meeting, we only had to write a message through WhatsApp and attended us immediately, ”says the priest.
Being Bishop of Chiclayo in 2015, Father Robert, born in Chicago, United States, decided to nationalize Peruvian. He barely sent greetings from the Vatican to his beloved “Diocese of Chiclayo”, the entire world and the international pages of all media looked at Peru as the cradle of their apostolate, because it was in The north of Peru where Father Robert formed and tanned his vocation.
Prevost began its religious path in 1985 in the dusty streets of the human settlements of Chulucanas, under an inclement climate that in summer is around 39 degrees. Two years before, an Augustinian priest had been ordered and was sent to Peru in his first pastoral mission in the convulsed times of terrorism and hyperinflation. Nicanor Aristotle Palacios was a Monaguillo in the Cathedral of Chulucanas when Father Robert arrived and he remembers it: «He arrived very young and was very kind to us, that we were a group of eight teenagers. With him we were going to make masses in the field, to preach in the most impoverished areas. On weekends he took us to the farms to harvest lemons and mangoes and distribute them and then led us to lunch. We made a very beautiful friendship, ”he tells La Razón. Palacios is now a technician of the Peruvian Air Force and works in Iquitos, a city of the Peruvian jungle, but always contacted the now Pope Leo XIV. Now he with his former companions are thinking of making a video and sending it to the Vatican. “We want to give that surprise,” he says enthusiastically.
When Father Robert arrived in Peru at age 30, he knew how to speak something Spanish because his mother, Mildred Martínez was Spanish. The same year she died, the Pope baptized a Peruvian goddaughter who is named after her mother, Mildred Camacho. Everyone reminds him of those years with his thin figure, which he liked to go to popular dining rooms to talk about Jesus, the Gospel and the love of others. In the photos of those times that Peruvians have begun to dust off, he is surrounded by children and young people in his pastoral and missionary work. He spent a year as a parochial vicar of the cathedral. And he was chancellor of the prelature of Chulucanas. After a brief return to the United States as a vocational promoter, he chose to return to Peru in 1988, again to the north, he arrived in Trujillo with the mission of forming Augustinian priests.
Until 1998, Prevost was in Trujillo, where he directed the common training project of the Augustinian applicants and served as a prior of the community, training director and teacher of teacher. There he also created parishes such as Our Lady of Montserrat.
«When I heard the name Robert Prevost as the new Pope, I knelt in front of the TV and began to cry. I thank God because I heard his masses and he was always close to the humblest. It is a blessing for Peru, now so beaten with crime and corruption, ”says Gisela Puicón, parishioner of the diocese of that city. He has seen the new Pope mounted on horseback and in a “mototaxi”with water boots in full overflow of the river, serving in popular dining rooms and eating a kid with kid, celebrating masses and giving edges of ears to the corrupt authorities. And now he sees him in the Vatican greeting her all the parishioners of his diocese. Not a few have remembered that when Alberto Fujimori was pardoned, Prevost said that the ex -dictator should apologize to the relatives of all the victims of his government. He also criticized the repression of the current president of Peru Dina Boluarte in the marches against her government. It was always a very active town priest and that was not silent.
When in 2014, Prevost was appointed by Pope Francis as Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Chiclayo and was then elevated to Bishop of Chiclayo in 2015, he began to open his way to lead the Church from a social perspective and commitment. «As a bishop he attended very critical situations such as the strong Venezuelan migration, also The situation of prisons, poverty, Always attending to those issues with a horizon perspective and social commitment, which was not before, ”says Javier Jachnke of the Episcopal Social Action Commission (CEAS). As a bishop he also began to form priests that were closer to people and that they made more social and pastoral action in favor of the most needy. In Chiclayo, he is also evoked as a serene and compassionate bishop who always lived austerely. In 2023 he was ordered Cardinal by Pope Francis and that same year he was fired in the Cathedral of Chiclayo with the song “is nothing more than until later”, when he had to march to Rome convened by Pope Francis to the Vatican to work by his side, who knows if by then, he also imagined him as his successor.