Pope Leo XIV

Image by Vatican News

Pope Leo XIV (born Robert Francis Prevost; 14 September 1955) is the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City since 2025. He is the first North American to be elected pope, and the first pope to come from an English-speaking country since Adrian IV, as well as the first Peruvian citizen.

Born in Chicago, Illinois, USA, Prevost spent the early part of his career there working for the Augustinians. He served in Peru from 1985 to 1986 and from 1988 to 1998 as a parish pastor, diocesan official, seminary teacher, and administrator. He then returned to the United States, serving as general of the Order of Saint Augustine from 2001 to 2013. He served as Bishop of Chiclayo in Peru from 2015 to 2023. He was made a cardinal in 2023 by Pope Francis. He was appointed prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, a prominent role that raised his profile as a potential papal candidate, and president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America in 2023.

Following the death of Francis in April 2025, the 2025 papal conclave elected Leo as Francis’s successor on 8 May 2025.

Robert Francis Prevost was born in Chicago on 14 September 1955, the son of Louis Marius Prevost and Mildred Martínez. His father, who was a United States Navy veteran of World War II and a school administrator, was of French and Italian descent, and his mother, a librarian, was of Spanish descent. Prevost has two brothers. As a child, Prevost served as an altar boy at St. Mary of the Assumption Church on the far South Side of Chicago. He completed his secondary studies at the minor seminary of the Order of St. Augustine in 1973. Prevost earned a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics at Villanova University in 1977.

Prevost speaks English, Spanish, Italian, French, and Portuguese, and can read Latin and German.

Deciding to become a priest, Prevost joined the Order of St. Augustine in September 1977, taking his first vows in September 1978 and his solemn vows in August 1981. The following year, he was awarded a Master of Divinity degree from the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. While there, he substituted as a physics teacher occasionally at St. Rita of Cascia High School and also taught math part-time.

Prevost was ordained a priest by Archbishop Jean Jadot for the Augustinians in Rome on 19 June 1982. He earned a Licentiate of Canon Law in 1984 and a Doctor of Canon Law degree in 1987 from the Pontifical College of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome.

Prevost joined the Augustinian mission in Peru in 1985 and served as chancellor of the Territorial Prélature of Chulucanas from 1985 to 1986. He returned to Peru in 1988, spending the next ten years heading the Augustinian seminary in Trujillo. He also taught canon law in the diocesan seminary and served as prefect of studies. Prevost served as judge of the regional ecclesiastical court and a member of the College of Consultors of Trujillo. He also led a congregation on the outskirts of the city.

In 1998, Prevost was elected provincial of the Augustinian Province of Chicago and returned to the United States to assume that position on 8 March 1999.

In 2000, Prevost allowed Father James Ray, an Augustinian priest, to reside at St. John Stone Friary in Chicago under a monitor, refraining from public ministry, after the first rectory proposed for his residence was rejected by the archdiocesan review board because it was on the same property as a parish school. Ray had been suspended from public ministry since 1991 due to credible accusations of sexual abuse of minors. Ray was moved to a different residence in 2002 when the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops adopted stricter rules for handling priests accused of abusing minors.

In 2001, Prevost was elected to a six-year term as Prior General of the Augustinians. He was elected to a second six-year term in 2007. From 2013 to 2014, Prevost served as director of formation in the Convent of St. Augustine in Chicago, as well as first councilor and provincial vicar of the province of Our Mother of Good Counsel, which covers the midwestern United States.

On 3 November 2014, Pope Francis appointed Prevost as apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Chiclayo in Peru and titular bishop of Sufar. He received his episcopal consecration on 12 December 2014 at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Chiclayo. On 26 September 2015, he was named bishop of Chiclayo.

On 13 July 2019, Prevost was appointed a member of the Congregation for the Clergy in Rome. On 15 April 2020, he was named apostolic administrator of Callao in Peru. On 21 November 2020, Francis named him a member of the Congregation for Bishops.

Alleged victims of abuse from two priests, dating back to 2007, said that Prevost failed to open an investigation in 2022. According to the Diocese of Chiclayo, Prevost met with the young women in April 2022 and encouraged them to take their case to the civil authorities while opening an initial canonical investigation.

Within the Episcopal Conference of Peru, Prevost served on the permanent council from 2018 to 2020. He was elected in 2019 as president of its Commission for Education and Culture. He was also a member of the leadership of Caritas Peru. Prevost had a private audience with Francis on 1 March 2021, fueling speculation of a new assignment either in Chicago or Rome.

On 30 January 2023, Francis appointed Prevost prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops with the title archbishop-bishop emeritus of Chiclayo. At the 30 September consistory, Francis appointed him cardinal-deacon of the Chapel of Santa Monica degli Agostiniani in Rome. As prefect, he held a key position within the Roman Curia. The office is responsible for evaluating and recommending candidates for the episcopate around the world. This role increased Prevost’s visibility and influence within the Catholic Church, raising his profile ahead of any future papal conclave.

On 6 February 2025, Francis promoted Prevost to cardinal-bishop, assigning him to the Suburbicarian Diocese of Albano in the Province of Rome.

On 8 May 2025, the second day of the 2025 papal conclave, Prevost became the first Pope from North America. He took the papal name Leo XIV, following on from Leo XIII. About an hour after his election, Pope Leo XIV was announced by Cardinal Dominique Mamberti, Protodeacon of the College of Cardinals, from the balcony of Saint Peter’s Basilica, and then Leo appeared to greet the gathered crowds. Unlike Francis, who chose to wear simple white robes, Leo XIV wore a papal mozetta.

Pope Leo XIV has opposed the ordination of women to the diaconate. As a bishop, Prevost opposed the inclusion of curriculum regarding “teachings on gender in schools” in Peru, stating that the “promotion of gender ideology is confusing, because it seeks to create genders that don’t exist”. An acquaintance of Pope Leo XIV, Jesus Leon Angeles, noted that he cares for Venezuelan refugees in Peru.

In 2012, Prevost lamented that popular culture fostered “sympathy for beliefs and practices that are at odds with the Gospel”, citing the “homosexual lifestyle” and “alternative families comprised of same-sex partners and their adopted children”. After Pope Francis’s 2023 declaration Fiducia supplicans allowed Catholic priests to bless couples who are not married according to church teaching (including same-sex couples), he criticized the practicality of the declaration in parts of Africa where homosexuality is still illegal, saying “our cultural situation is such that the application of this document is just not going to work”.