Long before their ascensions, Francis and Leo were friends

Vatican City: A few years ago, Pope Francis turned to an Augustinian priest and asked a question about a personnel decision he was considering.

“If I name Prevost as the head of the office for the bishops, how do you think he will do?” the Rev. Alejandro Moral Antón, the prior general of the Order of St. Augustine, said Francis asked him in the library of the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace. He was referring to Robert Francis Prevost, a fellow Augustinian cleric.

Moral Antón said he would do well.

“I also think he will,” Francis said.

Prevost did better than most would have imagined. And on Thursday, he followed Francis as the leader of the Roman Catholic Church, becoming its 267th pope.

But the quiet conversation in the Apostolic Palace was the result of years of a longtime connection between the present and future popes.

The two first met in Buenos Aires, when Francis was Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio.

“Not all my encounters with Cardinal Bergoglio were always in agreement,” the future Leo said at a 2023 event.

But over the years, Leo also expressed admiration and warmth for Francis, according to people close to the pope.

“Pope Leo spoke of Pope Francis as a good friend,” said the Rev. Tony Pizzo, one of the new pope’s friends and a former schoolmate.

By 2013, Francis had become pope, and the future Leo had become the prior general for the Augustinian order in Rome, a role he was about to leave. Then Francis accepted an invitation to preside over a private Mass at the Basilica of St. Augustine in Rome.

“Bob nearly fell over,” the Rev. Anthony Banks, another Augustinian, said of Prevost. Usually, he said, “popes don’t have the time or the energy to spend” at congregational Masses.

At the Mass, Prevost called the pope “a great gift” and praised his compassion and outreach to the faithful.

It was not long until Francis named him bishop of the Peruvian diocese of Chiclayo.

Francis was encouraged by reports about how close he stuck to his flock in Chiclayo, according to Moral Antón, who said he continued to have conversations with Francis about the new bishop. In 2023, Francis appointed him to lead the Vatican’s office overseeing bishops, one of the church’s top jobs, and named him to be a cardinal.

“I have mixed feelings,” the future pope said at the 2023 event, held just before he left Peru for the Vatican. He said his preference would be to stay in Chiclayo, and that “the pope knows that too.”

Still, he added, “I am grateful to the Holy Father for this great demonstration of trust.”

In Rome, Francis kept closer tabs on future Leo, meeting with him every Saturday. And after a major meeting of church leaders, Francis expressed admiration for his work ethic. “Prevost’s preparation,” Moral Antón said Francis told him, “was amazing.”