The Making of the First American Pope

"In Peru every August, throngs of Catholics set out on foot from the remote northern town of Motupe, bound for a cliffside chapel that houses the Cross of Chalpon. The cross, made of guayacán wood and ringed with precious metals, stands about eight feet tall and is believed to have been discovered, as if by a miracle, in a nearby cave in 1868. The ascent takes about an hour, and venders along the way sell religious images and replicas of the cross,"

"For decades, the presiding bishop was a member of Opus Dei, a traditionalist movement, founded in Spain in 1928, that has thrived in Latin America. In 2014, however, Pope Francis appointed Robert Prevost, an Augustinian priest from Chicago who had spent a dozen years as a missionary in Peru, to the post. Prevost himself, of course, is now the Pope; he was elected on May 8th and took the name Leo XIV."

Each August pilgrims walk from Motupe to a cliffside chapel that houses the Cross of Chalpon, a guayacán wood cross discovered in 1868, with vendors selling religious images, replicas and roasted corn along the route. A procession brings the cross to San Julián church for a Mass that fills the plaza, accompanied by bands and rose-petal showers from helicopters. For decades the regional bishop belonged to Opus Dei, but in 2014 Robert Prevost, an Augustinian priest from Chicago with a dozen years of missionary work in Peru, was appointed to the diocese. Prevost was elected pope on May 8, taking the name Leo XIV, noted for a Midwestern, matter-of-fact style. Since the Second Vatican Council, a dynamic pope is often followed by a more sober, deliberate ally.

Read at The New Yorker