Pope Leo XIV is a former missionary. His background is not lost on Father Eduardo Pruneda, an associate pastor at the Mission Basilica San Buenaventura in Ventura.
“He was working as a missionary in Peru for 20 years,” said Pruneda. “He worked in Chicago, so he knows the big communities in our country, but then also for the world.”
“And that’s very important because that’s Pope Francis—the outreach—and it’s not just a mission. It’s being in Peru, one of the poorest countries in Latin America, and being there, knowing the suffering of the people, walking with the people, which is necessary, as we cannot, as a church, understand the suffering if you don’t live that and walk with the people.”…