LWF congratulates Pope Leo XIV, expresses hope for building “bridges of peace”

“May Catholics and Lutherans continue to grow towards unity through joint service and shared witness”

(LWI) - “It is with deep joy and gratitude in the Holy Spirit that the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) welcomes your election as Bishop of Rome,” said LWF General Secretary Rev. Dr Anne Burghardt on 8 May, as the first ever pope from the United States of America, Robert Francis Prevost, appeared on the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

Welcoming the new Pope Leo XIV on behalf of the global communion of Lutheran churches around the world, Burghardt said: “We will be praying for the new pope’s ministry, that together, the Roman Catholic Church and the Lutheran churches will continue to grow towards unity through joint service to people in need and shared witness to Christ so that the world may believe.”

Just after six in the evening, white smoke billowed out from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel as cheering erupted from tens of thousands of people who had gathered below in St Peter’s Square. Shortly afterwards, the newly elected pontiff stepped out onto the balcony and gave a first greeting in Italian and Spanish, emphasizing the need for peace, bridge building and dialogue.

Thanking the cardinals who elected him on the second day of the conclave, the new leader of the Roman Catholic Church recalled his predecessor, Pope Francis, who “blessed Rome and the world” on Easter morning, the day before he died. “Allow me to continue that same blessing,” Pope Leo said, “God loves us, all of us, evil will not prevail [....] Without fear, united, hand in hand with God and among ourselves, we will go forward. We are disciples of Christ, Christ goes before us, and the world needs His light. [....] You help us to build bridges with dialogue and encounter so we can all be one people, always in peace.”

The 69-year-old Prevost was born in Chicago but holds both U.S and Peruvian citizenship, after spending more than two decades serving as a missionary priest and then bishop in the South American nation. He studied for a bachelor's degree in mathematics before joining the Augustinian order in 1977. He then studied theology at Chicago’s Catholic Theological Union and obtained a doctorate at the Pontifical ‘Angelicum’ University of St Thomas Aquinas in Rome.

Missionary and prior of Augustinian order

In 1985, he joined the Augustinian mission in Peru and spent almost twenty years there, before returning to serve as prior general of the Augustinian order for two consecutive terms from 2001 to 2013. A year later, Pope Francis appointed him as bishop of the diocese of Chiclayo in northern Peru.

In January 2023, he came to Rome to serve as head of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Bishops, as well as President of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America. Pope Francis created him cardinal in September of that same year. As well as speaking English, Spanish and Italian, Pope Leo can speak French and Portuguese and can read Latin and German.

In a letter to the new pope, General Secretary Burghardt and LWF President Henrik Stubkjær noted that as a communion of churches, the LWF “has been deeply committed to the dialogue with the Roman Catholic Church that began shortly after the Second Vatican Council, and that has produced the ground-breaking Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification.” They also recalled the historic commemoration of the 500^th anniversary of the Reformation at which the late Pope Francis presided alongside LWF leaders.

“These events and others continue to express our deep ecumenical hope, as we look forward to the Sixth Phase of the International Lutheran-Catholic Commission on Unity and the 500^th anniversary of the Augsburg Confession in 2030,” they said. “As you step into this ministry,” they told the new pope, “we hold you particularly in our prayer. May you find strength, endurance, patience and joy as you exercise your ministry, not only for the Roman Catholic Church but for all Christian world communions and, in fact, for all humanity.”