{"id":7511,"date":"2025-05-12T12:25:05","date_gmt":"2025-05-12T12:25:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/12\/pope-amigo-peruvians-remember-the-young-american-priest-who-became-pope\/"},"modified":"2025-05-12T12:25:05","modified_gmt":"2025-05-12T12:25:05","slug":"pope-amigo-peruvians-remember-the-young-american-priest-who-became-pope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/12\/pope-amigo-peruvians-remember-the-young-american-priest-who-became-pope\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope! Amigo! Peruvians remember the young American priest who became pope"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmak1x5ld004i27p44lsebqvz@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            Chiclayo\u2019s main plaza was raucous with the sounds of hammering and music, people milling in anticipation as the scaffolding went up for vast digital screens in front of the city cathedral. Saturday\u2019s open-air mass would be a very special one: a celebration marking the ascendency of Pope Leo XIV, the world\u2019s first American pope \u2013 but better known here as Robert, the world\u2019s first <em>Chiclayano<\/em> pope.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmak1zxab00033b6m7fiw0kb9@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            Through the cathedral\u2019s open doors, a line of women formed in front of the confessional in preparation for the big evening. A children\u2019s chorus performed on the steps, competing with the thumping bass of secular life down the street, where two men in short shorts were leading a dance class. Banners draped around the square showed Leo\u2019s smiling face, 10 feet high. Signs outside a local restaurant touted its goat stew as his favorite lunch order, back when he lived here.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmak1zxab00053b6m1fjcs545@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            Inside the cathedral, Amalia Cruzado, 52, silently sobbed in the pews, her arms outstretched.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmak1zxab00063b6mdv7yakk6@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            \u201cIt\u2019s a day of miracles. Chiclayo is so blessed,\u201d she said. After praying, she would head home and pick up the rest of her family to attend the evening mass; her elderly father, suffering from cancer, desperately needed a miracle for his health.    <\/p>\n<div data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/interactive-video\/instances\/cmak3zqzu00283b6mfi0t6tyt@published\" class=\"interactive-video\" data-component-name=\"interactive-video\" data-editable=\"settings\">\n<div class=\"interactive-video__container\">            <video class=\"interactive-video__player\" loop=\"\" muted=\"\" autoplay=\"\" playsinline=\"\"><\/video>        <\/div>\n<div class=\"interactive-video__metadata\">\n<div class=\"interactive-video__caption\">                    <span data-editable=\"metaCaption\" class=\"inline-placeholder\">Amalia and her family prepare for a mass celebrating Pope Leo.<\/span><figcaption class=\"interactive-video__credit\">CNN<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmak1zxab00073b6mugz3ejd8@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            Pope Leo was born in the United States as Robert Prevost, but for his adopted nation of Peru \u2013 where he acquired citizenship in 2015 \u2013 he is a <em>Chiclayano<\/em>, a son of the bustling northern Peruvian city where he served as bishop for years, after working as a priest in the countryside.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmak1zxab00083b6mrxufqp98@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            Here, everyone has a story about him.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmak1zxab00093b6mdp4o3gwg@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            Back in the 1980s, Nicanor Palacios was an altar boy with Leo during his early priesthood in nearby Piura, and traveled the area with him for services. \u201cBeing the junior priest, he was often sent out in the field,\u201d recalled Palacios, now an airforce technician. \u201cHe would take us out in the parish\u2019s jeep to have lunch.\u201d    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmak1zxab000a3b6m281ugl6w@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            \u201cIt wasn\u2019t hard for him to fit in. There was a small village back then, called Kilometer 50, on the Pan-American Highway. He\u2019d take us there for dry meat and fried plantains. He liked that type of stuff and liked to go to the country. He\u2019d eat just like a northern Peru farmer: yucca, fried fish, maybe a bite of fried meat.\u201d    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmak1zxab000b3b6m4sa8jzlx@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            \u201cWhat I liked most was his advice, because many young people, even back then, they would get lost, but he was just a young man, 24 or 25 years old, very serious and full of advice,\u201d said Palacios, whose mother died when he was young and for whom Leo and the other altar boys become a second family, he says.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmak1zxab000c3b6m2my3ctpq@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            Many years later, as a bishop in Chiclayo, Leo\u2019s accent was still \u201cvery American,\u201d according to local priest Emerson Lizana, 30, but his presence felt deeply familiar in this northern Peruvian outpost.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmak1zxab000d3b6m8z3qulwk@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            \u201cThe way he treated people, his presence enveloped you in a sense of trust. He had a Latin American heart,\u201d Lizana said, describing how the then-bishop became part of the daily life of Chiclayo, visiting the city\u2019s poorest neighborhoods and carrying a cross through deserted streets during the Covid-19 pandemic.    <\/p>\n<h2 class=\"subheader inline-placeholder subheader\" data-editable=\"text\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/subheader\/instances\/cmak38w1x00223b6mqnixkbp8@published\" data-component-name=\"subheader\" id=\"searching-for-truth-and-searching-for-god\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">        Searching for truth and searching for God<\/h2>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmak1zxab000f3b6maw8h03tt@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            Chiclayo is a city famous for the fervor of its faithful, even in deeply Catholic Peru. According to a 2017 census, Peru\u2019s population is 90% Christian and 76% Catholic \u2013 more than Italy and far more than in Leo\u2019s native United States, where Catholics are under 20%.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmak1zxab000g3b6m4gwv82hl@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            Leo, widely considered a progressive pope and ideological successor to Pope Francis, worked closely with the neediest in Chiclayo, coordinating local NGOs, churches and religious groups in the late 2010s to assist a flood of Venezuelans fleeing political chaos and economic collapse in their home country.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmak1zxab000h3b6mgv2b2jlv@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            But his tenure has not been without criticism \u2013 three women allegedly abused by a local priest released a letter in September last year accusing Leo of failing to fully investigate their claims while he was bishop. The new pope has also been called upon by Catholics for Choice to change his views on abortion; an X account under Prevost\u2019s name previously shared articles critical of reproductive rights and \u201cgender ideology.\u201d    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmakjhmbg00193b6m4jln9ysr@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            \u201cWe are very worried. As you may have noticed, there is a lot of emotion in the province and in the region about the appointment of the Pope who was from Chiclayo. Ultra-conservativism, fundamentalism, new movements can emerge from evangelical and Catholic roots,\u201d she said.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmakj8ryr00173b6mpxrs5dt0@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            \u201cAbove all it is the Church that has maintained this idea of being against abortions, that abortion is also a sin, that it is murder. And this continues to be referred to and repeated by the Peruvian authorities.\u201d    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmak1zxab000j3b6mogzg35ks@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            Abortion access is heavily restricted in Peru; in 2023, the United Nations accused Peru\u2019s government of violating the rights of a 13-year-old girl who was refused an abortion following years of rape by her father, and then imprisoned by local authorities after she miscarried.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmak1zxab000k3b6mieylsunr@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            Still, for a pope, Leo\u2019s social progressivism in other areas is seen locally as an overall \u201cgood direction\u201d by some rights advocates.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmak1zxab000l3b6m4psv2n6b@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            \u201cWe don\u2019t expect that suddenly the Pope goes out and defends the rights of women, but perhaps he will take a position that is a bit more human, and less stigmatizing of women who interrupt their pregnancies,\u201d said Rossina Vasquez, director of a women\u2019s rights group in Peru.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmak1zxab000m3b6mky27sq82@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            An interest in seeking truth and justice is part of the worldview of Augustinian priests like Leo, according to Friar Pip\u00e9, teacher at an Augustinian-run school in the outskirts of Chiclayo.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmaklirbh00003b6m0wpz4uj5@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            \u201cFor us Augustinians, God is the truth, and for us searching for the truth is searching for God,\u201d said Pip\u00e9. \u201cWhat I hope is that Leo can be a pope who becomes a sign of unity for the church: we can always do better, through dialogue and understanding, both inside our Church and with other religions,\u201d he added.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmakk6kxe001i3b6mu3ptmaq0@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            Pip\u00e9, 30, was personally ordained by Leo in 2023 and blessed him in return per tradition; a blessing that he now jokes may have played some role in Leo\u2019s chances during the Vatican\u2019s conclave to select a new pope last week.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmak1zxab000q3b6m1aepdgzl@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            He remembers watching a broadcast of the process on YouTube as it played out in Rome, his fellow Augustinians erupting in whoops of joy and triumph when Leo\u2019s name was called out.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmak1zxac000r3b6mxcrts9ei@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            With a <em>Chiclayano<\/em> pope, now anything is possible, Pip\u00e9 joked.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmak1zxac000s3b6mel4vu4ol@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            \u201cLet\u2019s see,\u201d he laughed. \u201cWhen Benedict was the Pope, Germany won the World Cup. Then Francis was the Pope, and Argentina won\u2026 now, Robert is Pope, either Peru or the USA are going to win the World Cup.\u201d    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmak1yc9c00003b6mn1cj1bo4@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            But for believers like Amalia Cruzado, who have little but their faith, the sense that this is a particularly blessed time for Chiclayo is no laughing matter.    <\/p>\n<div data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/interactive-video\/instances\/cmak40zf1002d3b6mfzkb5cij@published\" class=\"interactive-video\" data-component-name=\"interactive-video\" data-editable=\"settings\">\n<div class=\"interactive-video__container\">            <video class=\"interactive-video__player\" loop=\"\" muted=\"\" autoplay=\"\" playsinline=\"\"><\/video>        <\/div>\n<div class=\"interactive-video__metadata\">\n<div class=\"interactive-video__caption\">                    <span data-editable=\"metaCaption\" class=\"inline-placeholder\">The Cruzado family heads to mass. (David von Blohn\/CNN)<\/span><figcaption class=\"interactive-video__credit\">CNN<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmak1zxac000u3b6mpp6yq8gp@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            In her modest neighborhood, where Cruzado says children often go hungry or cannot afford shoes, dust rose on Saturday evening as a taxi bumped down the unpaved street, the decal on its rear window reading \u201cLa Bendici\u00f3n de Dios.\u201d    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmak1zxac000v3b6mi40ixgf9@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            It was finally time for the evening mass.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmak1zxac000w3b6my5nber21@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            Her family of eight piled in \u2013 freshly dressed and coiffed, from her 9-month-old grandson to her 79-year-old father \u2013 for a hair-rising ride through traffic back to the darkening square. Street lights flickered on as they arrived, police still hard at work cordoning off the cathedral\u2019s steps for the night\u2019s rituals.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmak1zxac000x3b6mq58sl40p@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            Cruzado hoisted her grandson in one arm and shepherded her father toward the front, past crowds taking selfies in front of the Pope\u2019s illuminated likeness. Soon prayers would begin, followed by a familiar order: readings from the Bible, the homily by Chiclayo\u2019s new bishop,  communion.    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmak1zxac000y3b6mm1e07qio@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            \u201cPapa! Amigo! El pueblo esta contigo!\u201d congregants chanted in the crowd, blasting airhorns and lifting their children in the air as if it were a home team game. \u201cPope! Friend! The people are with you!    <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph inline-placeholder vossi-paragraph\" data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/paragraph\/instances\/cmak1zxac000z3b6mo7eco8o8@published\" data-editable=\"text\" data-component-name=\"paragraph\" data-article-gutter=\"true\">            \u201cLet me tell you, the Pope has two hearts: one is for where he was born, but the other one is for here, for us, the humble people of Chiclayo,\u201d Cruzado said. \u201cHe is our Pope.\u201d    <\/p>\n<div data-uri=\"cms.cnn.com\/_components\/interactive-video\/instances\/cmak41k0q002f3b6ms7devny9@published\" class=\"interactive-video\" data-component-name=\"interactive-video\" data-editable=\"settings\">\n<div class=\"interactive-video__container\">            <video class=\"interactive-video__player\" loop=\"\" muted=\"\" autoplay=\"\" playsinline=\"\"><\/video>        <\/div>\n<div class=\"interactive-video__metadata\">\n<div class=\"interactive-video__caption\">                    <span data-editable=\"metaCaption\" class=\"inline-placeholder\">Amalia Cruzado and her father in Chiclayo&#8217;s main plaza. (David von Blohn\/CNN)<\/span><figcaption class=\"interactive-video__credit\">CNN<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>This post appeared first on cnn.com<\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chiclayo\u2019s main plaza was raucous with the sounds of hammering and music, people milling in anticipation as the scaffolding went up for vast digital screens in front of the city cathedral. Saturday\u2019s open-air mass would&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7512,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/invest360pro.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}