On Thursday, the cardinal electors of the Catholic Church elected Chicago native Robert Francis Prevost, 69, as the first American-born Pope to lead the world's 1.4 billion Catholics. Prevost chose Leo XIV as his papal name. Fr. Leo Patalinghug, the founder of Plating Grace ministry, told Newsmax on Saturday that Prevost's choosing of the name Leo "makes a ton of sense."
"Now if you actually do a historical deep dive into the various Pope Leo's and the contributions they've made for the church and the world it makes a ton of sense theologically speaking," Patalinghug said during an appearance on "America Right Now."
The host of "The Father Leo Show" on YouTube noted that American cardinals were not as familiar with Prevost because he did most of his missionary work in Peru the last 20 years.
"When you actually hear him talk to his brother. He sounds like a Chicagoan, but honestly, when he speaks English from this position, he sounds slightly European, or he has almost an affected accent, which happens when you are fluent in multiple languages. And so he really does represent a global unity as well as a universality to represent the church around the world," he added.
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