No Francis II: Cardinal Prévost Didn’t Want to Irritate the Catholics
He didn’t want to irritate the “conservative [= Catholic] cardinals”.
Don Vásquez has maintained a long ‘digital correspondence’ with Cardinal Prévost until a few days before the start of the Conclave through a messaging app.
“There was an understanding between us from the very beginning,” Vásquez said: “I've already seen him cry here” in Chiclayo because they had treated him “rudely” shortly after his arrival.
Vásquez calls Leo XIV a “scholar, intellectual, but very practical.” After eating, he would take his plate to the kitchen [not to the living room]; during the pandemic, he cooked [because he had no other choice].
During Covid “there were no oxygen machines in the area. In less than a week, he managed to have two machines installed by Caritas in Chiclayo and another in a small parish nearby.”
During Cyclone Yaku, which devastated northern Peru two years ago, “he put on his boots like any farmer, got covered in mud and personally brought aid to many of those affected [which may indicate that he had very few collaborators].”
Between 50,000 and 80,000 Venezuelan immigrants arrived in his area. Bishop Prevost provided them [all?] with supplies. A Commission for “Human Mobility and Human Trafficking” was created to address prostitution and child exploitation.
According to Vásquez, Leo XIV will give priority to social issues over doctrinal ones [which would contradict what the Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles ask from the successors of the Apostles]: “Like Francis, immigration will also be a priority for him.”
“During Trump's first term, with the [alleged] policy of separating families in 2018, he spoke out strongly against the President of the United States.
Vásquez predicts that Leo XIV will change the training of priests because he wants seminaries to teach not a “doctrinal theology from above” [??], but a “God with us” [??].
He is an Augustinian and will follow St Augustine's principle that the Church must always reform itself" which is a truism.
According to Vásquez, a small gesture by Prevost during his time in Peru could indicate how he will behave as Pope towards women: “When he arrived, he said: why should altar boys in parishes be only boys? He also opened the doors to altar girls.”
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