FILIPINO Catholic faithful and church leaders congratulated Pope Leo XIV, the United States-Peruvian citizen Cardinal Robert Prevost, who succeeded Pope Francis following his death on April 21, 2025 at the age of 88.
The College of Cardinals elected the 69-year-old Chicago-born Augustinian, identified as first supreme pontiff of the 1.4 billion-strong Catholic Church from the USA, on May 8.
“Since he was bishop of Peru, it can be expected of him to be familiar with the conditions of a third world country. He’ll be more pastoral than doctrinal without of course sacrificing the doctrine which hopefully he will make to be more adaptable to third world conditions,” Cebu City Catholic priest Roy Cimagala told Sunstar Philippines on May 9.
When asked about the priorities the new pope should set for the Catholic Church in Asia, Cimagala opined that Pope Leo XIV “should focus on how the poor can be more attended to and be made to participate more in the life of the church.”
“The first thing the new Pope talked about when he appeared at the balcony was peace and social justice which the Asian Church has been fighting for. We are happy and grateful to God for having a Pope very near to the marginalized like the late Pope Francis,” added Monsignor Oscar Cadayona, vicar-general of the Diocese of Maasin, in a report from Catholic news site UCA News.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. earlier congratulated the new pontiff, saying: “The Filipino people are also praying for the new pope's strength and good health as he leads the faithful with grace, wisdom and compassion.”
“May his life and ministry inspire us to persevere in our daily walk with our Lord Jesus Christ,” the president said in a statement.
Jing Rey Henderson, head of the national Ecology Program for Caritas Philippines, the social action arm of Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, said they welcomed “with great joy” the election of Pope Leo XIV.
“As the climate emergency intensifies—displacing families, destroying livelihoods, and threatening future generations—his call to ‘move from words to action’ must not remain a slogan. We echo this urgent appeal and call on the global Church, governments, and all sectors of society to step up and respond with courage and conviction,” said Henderson in an interview with Sunstar Philippines.
“We pray that under Pope Leo XIV’s leadership, the Church will stand even more firmly with communities on the frontlines of ecological collapse. We are ready to work alongside him in turning faith into action for the care of our common home,” she added.
Henderson maintained that the pope’s moral courage and deep concern for the most vulnerable “offer renewed hope in this critical moment for humanity and the planet.”
‘Kind, generous words for Filipinos’
Meanwhile, Reverend Father Jonas Mejares, vice president for Augustinian Formation and mission at the University of San Agustin in Iloilo, expressed his elation over the election of Pope Leo XIV.
“He has a lot of kind and generous words for Filipinos, most especially here in Cebu,” Mejares said.
In a report from Philippine Information Agency (PIA), Mejares recalled his personal encounter with the new pope.
As Prior General of the Augustinian Order from 2001 to 2013, then-Father Prevost visited Cebu on many occasions.
In 2004, he blessed the novitiate house of the Order of Saint Augustine-Province of Santo Niño de Cebu in Barangay Mohon, Talisay City, Cebu.
In 2010, then-Father Prevost also visited Cebu’s Basilica Minore del Santo Niño, other Augustinian offices in the country, and officiated a Holy Mass at the San Agustin Church in Intramuros, Manila. (Ronald Reyes/SunStar Philippines)