Massimo Faggioli

He is a pope from the Americas, in plural. He is a global Catholic, born in the United States, that has been a missionary in Latin America; he also has Peruvian citizenship. He has worked in the Vatican helping Pope Francis in choosing new bishops, which is a crucial role.

The most important thing of all is that he is the first pope from the United States. A taboo has been broken. Very few people could imagine this. It was complicated to imagine a pope coming from the world’s superpower. But in a paradoxical way, Francis changed so many things that it helped this taboo to be broken.