San Antonio Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller said during a Thursday press conference that he believes his friend Pope Leo XIV’s papacy will be one of social justice, specifically in his advocacy for the poor, migrants and refugees.
Garcia-Siller told reporters prior to a Mass at San Fernando Cathedral that he believes Cardinal Robert Provost of Chicago chose the papal name “Leo” in honor of Pope Leo XIII, whose tenure at the end of the 19th century coincided with the rapid societal changes caused by the Industrial Revolution.
“If he chose that name, he wants to be an instrument of social justice values. But the one thing he mentioned several times that is very important is peace,” Garcia-Siller said. “The world today is at war in many ways. We are becoming more violent, we are building up military forces and arms. We know what is going on in some regions of the world. But even here, we need peace, and he will be a peacemaker.”
When Garcia-Siller served as auxiliary bishop in Chicago in 2003 he got to know the now 68-year-old pontiff.
“He was so gracious,” Garcia-Siller said.
Garcia-Siller also said he met with Provost during a 2012 trip to Rome, describing the then-cardinal as a “good man, good Augustinian and good Bishop in South American Peru.”
Before becoming a cardinal and relocating to Rome, Provost served for more than two decades as a missionary in Peru.
“The first American [pope] is a totally historic mark,” Garcia-Siller said. “Even, I think, many cardinals from the U.S. were not expecting that at this time there would be an American. But I think God has plans.”
Indeed, Cardinal Robert Provost’s election by the College of Cardinals came as a shock to many Vatican analysts, who believed that church would never come under the guidance of an American due to the amount of influence the U.S. already holds on the global stage economically, militarily and culturally.
Provost grew up in the Chicago suburb of Dolton and was known as “Father Bob” among colleagues. He’s a White Sox fan and a Villanova grad.
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This article appears in Apr 30 – May 13, 2025.
