US Cardinal becomes Pope Leo XIV
New pontiff is member of Augustinian Order and first American pope
American Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, OSA, has been named as the 267th Pope. The current Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, Archbishop-Bishop emeritus of Chiclayo, was born on September 14, 1955 in Chicago (Illinois, United States of America).
White smoke emerged from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel just after 5pm, signalling that cardinals locked inside had elected a new leader for the world's 1.4 billion Catholics.
Thousands of pilgrims and curious onlookers in St Peter's Square cheered, applauded and wept as the smoke appeared on the second day of voting at the Vatican. It is unclear whether it was on the third or fourth vote of the 135 cardinals.
The bells of St Peter's Basilica and churches across Rome rang out, indicating the 2,000-year-old Church has its 267th pope.
In 1977, Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost entered the novitiate of the Order of Saint Augustine (OSA) in the province of Our Lady of Good Counsel, in Saint Louis. In August 1981, he gave his solemn vows. He studied at the Catholic Theological Union of Chicago, receiving a diploma in theology.
At the age of 27 he was sent by the Order to Rome to study canon law at the Pontifical Saint Thomas Aquinas University (Angelicum). He received priestly ordination in June 1982. He received his licentiate in 1984, and was then sent to work in the mission of Chulucanas, in Piura, Peru (1985-1986).
In 1987 he was awarded a doctorate with the thesis: “The role of the local prior in the Order of Saint Augustine”. In the same year he was elected director of vocations and director of the missions of the Augustinian province of “Mother of Good Counsel” of Olympia Fields, Illinois.
In 1988 he was sent to the mission of Trujillo as director of the joint formation project for Augustinian aspirants in the Vicariates of Chulucanas, Iquitos and Apurímac. There he served as community prior (1988-1992), director of formation (1988-1998) and teacher of the professed (1992-1998). In the archdiocese of Trujillo he was judicial vicar (1989-1998), and professor of canon, patristic and moral law in the “San Carlos e San Marcelo” Major Seminary.
In 1999, he was elected provincial prior of the “Mother of Good Counsel” province, Chicago. After two and a half years, the ordinary general Chapter elected him prior general, a ministry again entrusted to him in the 2007 ordinary general Chapter.
In October 2013, he returned to his province (Chicago) to serve as teacher of the professed and provincial vicar, roles he held until November 2014, when Pope Francis appointed him apostolic administrator of the diocese of Chiclayo, Peru, elevating him to the dignity of bishop and assigning him the titular diocese of Sufar. He then took canonical possession of the diocese in the presence of the apostolic nuncio James Patrick Green; and he was ordained a bishop on December 12 , Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, in the cathedral of his diocese.
He served as bishop of Chiclayo from November 2015. In March 2018, he became second vice president of the Peruvian Episcopal Conference. Pope Francis appointed him a member of the Congregation for the Clergy in 2019, and member of the Congregation for Bishops in 2020.
In April 2020, the Pope appointed him apostolic administrator of the diocese of Callao. In January 2023, Pope Francis appointed Cardinal Prevost as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America. Created and proclaimed Cardinal by Pope Francis in the Consistory of 30 September 2023, of the Deaconry of Santa Monica.