Antoni Bassas' analysis: "Evil will not prevail" (Leo XIV)

Today there is only one name, and one piece of news, Robert Francis Prevost, 69 years old, is the new pope with the name of Leo, Leo XIV. Leo XIV did not waste his first appearanceIt was not a more or less improvised greeting but rather he read a speech. peacePope Prevost knows the state of the world he's speaking to. Bombs are falling in Gaza, guns are ringing in Europe, which is rearming, and authorities are calling on citizens to be prepared for emergencies. An international of hatred against immigrants, the poor, the excluded, or simply those who think differently, is triumphing on social media and in politics. And that's why a phrase stands out from his speech that could almost be the motto of his pontificate:

"Evil shall not prevail." Whatever form that evil takes, good will win. When we said that many people wanted to see in the new pope a moral counterweight to the winds blowing from the White House, we were referring to a phrase like this, which surely sent many people to sleep more soundly: "Evil shall not prevail." In these pages, you will find information, analysis, and, most especially, the challenges facing the new pope: zero tolerance, punishment and reparation for sexual abuse committed by religious leaders, and opening the Church much more to women, lay people, and married priests.

Robert Francis Prevost was born in Chicago, the son of immigrants. He spent decades as a missionary in Peru, where he was made a bishop. He was prior of the Augustinians and holds both American and Peruvian nationality. Pope Francis brought him to Rome as head of the bishops (meaning he knows the Vatican machinery and the names of those who make their careers), and Francis himself appointed him a cardinal in 2023.

And yes, as the American media keeps headlined, he is the first American pope, not the first American pope (The first American was Francis), but in the United States, America is part of the country's name, and they always take it all. Beyond that, consider how we've ended up with an American pope. Many American Catholics thought they'd never see a pope from their country, and the reason is this: the United States has so much weight in the world that all we needed was an American pope. What made this possible now? Well, the United States, without having lost any weight, has chosen a president who is the group leader of a nationalist offensive in international relations that exudes selfishness in all its policies and disregards human rights. In this sense, Leo is an American counterweight to Trump; he's a response to Trump and the multinational of hate.

An example of this is the tweet that Cardinal Prevost, the future Leo XIV, sent in February in response to Vice President JD Vance:

"JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn't ask us to rank our love for others." Vance had said that we must first love those at home to justify deportations and the cancellation of international aid.

Finally, we're all pretty good at explaining what happened at the conclave now, but we can infer that, as we said yesterday, Parolin clearly wanted to be the favorite, and that Francis left clear clues in favor of Prevost. And so, the cardinals went there for business. Regarding the name Leo, as Toni Soler writes today, "a lion to protect the flock." Leo XIII is the pope who created the social doctrine of the Church with the encyclical From rerum novarum (About new things), and, by the way, also what officially designates the Virgin of Montserrat as the patron saint of Catalonia.

Good morning.