No, not Jim! Not even Cardinal Cupich!
Pope names missionary bishop to head Dicastery for Bishops
America's writeup
Pope Francis has named Robert Francis Prevost, an Augustinian missionary who has been serving as Bishop of Chiclayo in Peru, as the new prefect for the Dicastery of Bishops. Bishop Prevost succeeds Cardinal Marc Ouellet, both as prefect and as president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.
Robert Francis Prevost, 67, was born in Chicago, Illinois, U.S., on 14 September 1955. He entered the novitiate of the Order of Saint Augustine (OSA) in 1977, in the province of Our Lady of Good Counsel in St. Louis, and made his solemn vows on 29 August 1981. He studied at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, graduating with a degree in Theology.
At age 27, he was sent by the Order to Rome to study Canon Law at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (the Angelicum). He received priestly ordination on 19 June 1982. He received his Licentiate in 1984, then was sent to work in the mission in Chulucanas, Piura, Peru (1985-1986).
In 1999 he was elected prior provincial of the “Mother of Good Counsel" Province. After two and a half years, the Ordinary General Chapter elected him prior general, a ministry the Order entrusted to him again at the 2007 Ordinary General Chapter.
In October 2013 he returned to his province to be teacher of the professed and vicar provincial; positions he held until Pope Francis appointed him apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Chiclayo, Perun, on 3 November 2014, elevating him to the episcopal dignity of titular bishop of the Diocese of Sufar. He took canonical possession of the diocese on 7 November in the presence of Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop James Patrick Green; he was ordained bishop on 12 December, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, in the Cathedral of his diocese.
He has been bishop of Chiclayo since 26 September 2015. He has served as second vice president of the Peruvian Bishops' Conference since March 2018. Pope Francis appointed him a member of the Congregation for the Clergy in 2019 and a member of the Congregation for Bishops in 2020.
I wonder how many American bishops just saw their careers ended with this appointment?
ReplyDeleteCardinal Marc Ouellet was seen as a conservative, although he apparently got along with Pope Francis by appointing pastors rather than administrators as bishops.
Now the head is not only a Francis appointee but also someone who understands America and will probably do a better job of appointing bishops to Francis liking for the American situation.
That's pretty interesting. I have to admit, I have never heard of him before. I guess he was studying for his master's degree at CTU on the South Side, roughly the same time I was meandering toward a bachelor's degree at Loyola on the far North Side. He left Chicago not long afterward, it seems.
ReplyDeleteThere was an Augustinian high school on the South Side of Chicago, and I was wondering if he went to school there, but his Wikipedia page indicates he attended an Augustinian minor seminary during high school. I assume there was one in Chicago in those days (he was class of 1973 in high school) but if so, it's long gone. I don't think there are any minor seminaries anymore of any Catholic stripe in Chicago, unless one of the neo-Latin conservative orders has one.