Who is Cardinal Robert Prevost? Meet the new Pope Leo XIV

Staff Writer - May 2025

Cardinal Robert Prevost, a native of Chicago, was elected Pope and took the name Leo XIV on May 8, 2025.

Pope Leo XIV, 69, was born "Robert Francis Prevost," is a native of Chicago, Illinois. He is the first American citizen to be elected pope.

The future pontiff graduated from Villanova University, an Augustinian school, with a mathematics degree in 1977. He then entered the novitiate of of the Order of Saint Augustine (O.S.A.) upon graduation. He was ordained a priest on June 19, 1982.

Prevost spent the majority of his clerical life in Peru. About three years after his ordination to the priesthood, Prevost joined an Augustinian mission to the country. He later served as chancellor of the Territorial Prélature of Chulucanas from 1985 until 1986.

After a brief stay back in the United States, Prevost returned to Peru in the late 1980s. He taught at both the Augustinian seminary and diocesan seminaries in Trujillo. From 1989 to 1998, Prevost was the judicial vicar for the Archdiocese of Trujillo.

Prevost then returned to the United States and was the provincial general of his province of Augustinians. On Dec. 12, 2014, he was consecrated as a bishop. Prevost was the bishop of Chiclayo from 2015 until 2023, when he was appointed to the Dicastery for Bishops. He was also the head of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.

In 2023, Prevost was elevated to the College of Cardinals.

Prevost is fluent in English, Spanish, and Italian. He addressed the crowd in St. Peter's in Italian, Spanish and Latin after being introduced as Pope Leo XIV.

(Courtsey: aleteia.org)

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