Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
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Rome (Agenzia Fides) – “One particular trait stands out about the missionary Robert Francis Prevost, OSA, who became Pope Leo XIV. Those who knew him closely do not have any striking gestures to share, but they reiterate one quality: he is a man who knows how to listen.” This is what Father Andrea Mandonico, general archivist of the Society of African Missions, says when sharing his testimony about the figure of the new Pontiff, which he sees as “a particular challenge.”
“For a missionary to become Pope is an unprecedented experience for the Catholic Church. Pope Leo is not the missionary who has experienced the most heroic adventures, he is not the one who has raised his voice the most, he is not the one who has built the most schools or dispensaries,” Father Mandonico notes. “Rather, he left his mark by opening his heart and mind to those he met.” Because truly, as he said in the first Mass with the cardinals in the Sistine Chapel, even those in authority “disappear so that Christ may remain.”
The College of Cardinals, in electing Leo XIV, was fully aware that it was entrusting the Petrine ministry to a missionary.
“We must seek together how to be a missionary Church, a Church that builds bridges, in dialogue, always open to receiving, like this square with open arms,” Father Andrea recalls, evoking the words of Pope Leo XIV in his first message from the central loggia of St. Peter's Basilica. The Pontiff had invited each person to become a “bridge” of God's love for all.
“The missionary Pope is a particular challenge for us missionaries,” the archivist insists. “And in our Italy, perhaps, it is even more so today than in other regions of the world.” According to Father Mandonico, the figure of the new Pope recalls the urgency of the mission, precisely at a time when it might seem that "leaving for distant lands is a vocation already outdated." His witness challenges all Christians "not to close themselves up in a fortress," but to keep their gaze on the people, "ad gentes," and to open their communities "to the breath of the world." "Today he is Peter. And we too, missionaries in Italy and in every corner of the world, want to start again from here," he concludes. (AP) (Agenzia Fides, 23/5/2025)
