Spanish
Washington.- Several American cardinals who participated in this week's conclave to elect Leo XIV, said this Friday that the nationality of the new Pope did not weigh in his election as the main representative of the Catholic Church.
"I never thought it would be possible to have an American pope in my lifetime," explained Robert McElroy, Archbishop of Washington since 2025, at a press conference held in Rome, who, however, pointed out that "the impact of him being American was practically insignificant during the deliberations" and that he himself was surprised that "that was not a weighty issue" in the conclave.
The Cardinal and Archbishop of New York, Timothy Dolan, seconded McElroy by saying that the fact that Prevost was American had no weight and that the fact that the new pope "is a bridge builder" was key to his election.
Dolan emphasized that, given the years the current pope spent as a missionary and bishop in Peru, the new pontiff "is a citizen of the world" and that, in any case, once elected to occupy the papacy "where he comes from is already a thing of the past".
"Robert Francis Prevost is no longer around. He is now Pope Leo XIV and where he comes from is secondary," he added.
"What most concerned the cardinals, at least according to my conversations with them, was who among us can unite us, who among us can strengthen the faith and take it to places where it has weakened?" said the Archbishop Emeritus of Washington, Wilton Gregory, who emphasized that it was "the desire to strengthen the Christian faith among the people of God" that led to the election of Prevost as pope.
You may be interested in: Canadian cardinals consider Leo XIV the "least American" of all
All the cardinals who participated in the act agreed that for the designation of the new pontiff, the fact that the cardinal born in Chicago understood the work and the path undertaken by his predecessor, Francis, was crucial.
The Archbishop of Chicago, Blaise Cupich, also highlighted that the fact that Prevost chose the name of Leo "indicates the direction he wants to take as a great reformer" and recalled that Leo XIII, whose papacy took place between 1878 and 1903, "wrote movingly about the rights of workers, immigrants and those living on the margins of society".
