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The format for this year’s Sullivan Lecture in Catholic Studies is a Q&A, with you leading the questions. As a historian, what sort of questions do you intend to ask Dr. Chestnut about Pope Leo? 

We look to the continuities between the papacy of Francis, the previous Pope, and Pope Leo; In part because it is known that they were very close. In fact, Leo (or Robert Prevost) collaborated in Francis's papacy. They have known each other for a long time because when Francis was in the church's leadership in Argentina, Prevost was in the church's leadership in Peru, so they had the opportunity to interact regularly back then.

After his third stay in Peru, Francis invited Prevost to come to the Vatican to take charge of one of the offices there. So, one of the questions refers to the continuity; I think there are reasons to think that there is going to be some degree of continuity between these popes, as they were very close. On the other hand, I think their personality or leadership styles are very different. I think Francis was perhaps more outspoken, more assertive, more clearly influenced by liberation theology. This concern about the oppressed in general and minority groups including the poor; I think in the case of Robert Prevost or Pope Leo, he seems to have a more cautious, quieter style. Leo has prioritized so far, the need to address inequality, the need to take care of the poor; it's not that he's necessarily not concerned about the oppressed or minorities groups, but he has particularly emphasized inequality and the poor.

The other question that Professor Chesnut and I have been thinking about is whether the pope will be able to have a practical impact on matters of peace. For instance, I think that the Catholic Church has a lot of power in terms of carrying symbolic gestures and those symbolic gestures are quite powerful. We will not see the Catholic Church or the leadership of the Catholic Church as involved in international diplomacy as perhaps it used to be. I doubt that that is going to change with a new pope.

Another question has to do with the particular concern that Pope Leo has expressed about the implications of artificial intelligence and how can artificial intelligence be made compatible with human dignity. Once again, I think this is along the lines of his concern about inequality and poverty and that disadvantage.

So, I would probably summarize the questions that we have been discussing so far along those 3 issues.

As a dual citizen of Peru and the U.S., what do you think the role of Pope Leo’s Multicultural heritage/citizenship will play in his papacy?

I think Pope Leo’s heritage is already playing a very powerful symbolic role. I think once he was elected as the new Pope, there was celebration in the Catholic world, but there was also an effort of Catholic constituencies to claim Pope Leo as one of their own as an American Pope, as a Peruvian, and Latin American Pope. Leo lived for 30 years in Peru, and he has family roots in Spain and in the Mediterranean world. On his mother's side, there is some Spanish heritage, he also attended a theology school in Rome for a handful of years, so I think he has already had a very powerful symbolic role in the sense that he really represents globalization, he really represents the mobility that characterizes the modern world. I think he represents the migrant experience of many people in the world nowadays with regards to his citizenship.

From what I have read, part of the motivation that he had to become a citizen of Peru was so he could be appointed a Bishop in the Peruvian Catholic Church. I would dare to say that there is something deeper there. He has lived in Peru for 30 years, he's an immigrant to Peru, he is somebody who has experienced first-hand the negative effects of economic neoliberalism in Latin America. He has had to contend with the negative effects of neoliberalism at the time when he first arrived in Peru. Peru was going through an economic crisis; there was an internal civil conflict or a civil war between the Peruvian state and the ‘Shining Path’, which was a Maoist guerrilla organization living for a long time in the northern coast of Peru, which is the region of Peru that is generally more affected by the El Nino phenomenon. This is a cycle of drought and extreme rain that Pope Leo has seen first hand the effects of climate change and the threats that environmental change represents for human society, but in particular for the most disadvantaged.

I think all of this probably played a large role in his election as the Pope. Symbolically, he is already playing a large role and I would like to think that it has also prepared him to deal with some of the main challenges that we are currently facing.

As we head into Hispanic Heritage month, in your opinion, what significance does Pope Leo hold for Peruvians? For Latin Americans? 

Leo is seen as somebody who has embraced Peruvian and Latin American culture. It was very powerful that in the first speech that he gave in Rome, he decided to speak in both Italian and Spanish. Of course, it's evident that his first language is English, but I think it's very powerful that he decided to speak first in Italian and Spanish. I was reading about his life in Peru and he was deeply involved with a local society there; he was somebody who walked to visit villages within his parish, he was somebody who traveled by mule or by horse in order to reach some of the more distant villages, he was somebody who was aware of the importance of engaging with government officers. There are pictures of him going on either a horse or a mule into a Peruvian village, there are pictures of him feeding people with some traditional Peruvian food, and all of these are images that relate a lot with Latin American culture. The ideal of the priest or the archetype of the priest who is committed to his parish, to the believers at the local level, who is engaged with them, that doesn't shy away from sharing food. That is really something that resonates a lot in Latin America.

What do you think attendees will learn by attending this Q&A - for both Catholics and non-Catholics? 

This is a great opportunity to learn not just about the current dynamics, opportunities, and challenges that the Catholic Church faces in the world, but the role that the Catholic Church plays in the modern world. This is also a great opportunity to learn about the history of the Catholic Church in Latin America because as I mentioned before, Leo lived in Peru for so long, interacted with Catholic priests and the Catholic leadership there for so long, he has been a participant of some of the most important historical processes in Latin America in the last 30 or 40 years. More broadly, this is also an opportunity to learn about Latin America.

Both Dr. Chesnut and I tend to think about ourselves not just as historians but also as area specialists on Latin America. There has traditionally been a great interdisciplinarity within Latin American studies; it has to be that way because of the characteristics of the region, but also because of the sort of data and information sources that we have to work with.

To recap, I think it's a great opportunity to learn about the Catholic Church in the Latin American world, a great opportunity to learn the history of the Catholic Church in Latin America, and a great opportunity to learn about Latin America more broadly.