Alberto Linero correctly predicted that Robert Prevost would become Pope Leo XIV: this is what he said before the conclave

Around noon Colombia time on May 8, the chimney on the roof of the Sistine Chapel emitted white smoke, announcing the arrival of a new Pope.

The eyes of the Catholic world and the more than 45,000 faithful who crowded into St. Peter's Square were fixed on the grand balcony of the central loggia to find out who would succeed Francis.

It took just an hour for 69-year-old American Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, who took the name Leo XIV, to emerge from that area of ​​St. Peter's Basilica. He gave his first speech there.

Since then, there has been an endless stream of congratulatory reactions to the Peruvian-American for this new process that he will undergo over the next few years.

However, in Colombia, Alberto Linero, a noted writer and former priest, correctly predicted that Prevost would be the next Pope. He told Blu Radio that Leo XIV was a man who had arrived at the conclave with a strong presence.

"That's why I like Plevost, because he's American, he worked in Peru, he speaks perfect Spanish, English and Italian ," Linero said.

And the former priest had already studied Prevost, who had now arrived at the Vatican: "I have friends in the Vatican and one talks with them, and although no one has the truth about this , that was a name that began to sound because he was a man who represented Francis ."

He also added: "One realizes that he was close to Francis. (...) But he was also a well-formed theologically trained man: he is a missionary. And that gave a certain security to people with more conservative thinking. He was a person who united the two moments of the Church, the two ways of thinking."

"This is a missionary bishop, someone who isn't in an office, someone who's in difficult territory," Alberto Linero concluded on Blu Radio .

This is a man who offers a solid doctrine

"Peace be with you all" were his first words during a speech that was very focused on dialogue and peace and lasted about seven minutes, followed by a Hail Mary prayer by Leo XIV himself.

“Dear brothers and sisters, this is the first greeting from the risen Christ, the Good Shepherd who gave his life for God's flock. I too hope that this greeting of peace may reach your hearts (...) and reach you wherever you are, to all peoples, to all the earth. Peace be with you all ,” the Supreme Pontiff continued.

For Monsignor Francisco Múnera, president of the Colombian Episcopal Conference, the choice of his name "puts us in reference to the great Leo the Great, the great tradition of the Church, and also with Leo XIII , the great theologian pope and the one who gave us the first great encyclical of the Church," he said in conversation with Citytv, the television outlet of the EL TIEMPO Publishing House.

Prevost also referred to his predecessor and promised to continue his work , another important message that experts agree will be key to continuing the work the Church carried out during Bergoglio's papacy.

“Let me continue that same blessing (from Francis): that God loves us very much, he loves us all. Evil will not prevail. We are all in God's hands. Therefore, without fear, united, hand in hand with God and with one another, let us go forward united. Let us be disciples of Christ. The world needs your light.”

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