What to KnowAmerican-born Cardinal Robert Prevost has been chosen by the conclave to be the following pope. He shall be generally known as Pope Leo XIV.Prevost, a missionary who spent his profession ministering in Peru and leads the Vatican’s highly effective workplace of bishops, has been elected the primary American pope within the 2,000-year historical past of the Catholic Church. Prevost, 69, took the title Leo XIV. Many did not assume he was a contender on condition that he’s American, and there has lengthy been a taboo in opposition to a U.S. pope, given the geopolitical energy already wielded by the US within the secular sphere. However Prevost, a Chicago native, can also be a Peruvian citizen and lived for years in Peru, first as a missionary after which as an archbishop.
Chicago-born Cardinal Robert Prevost has been chosen by the conclave to be the following pope. He shall be generally known as Pope Leo XIV.
Prevost, a missionary who spent his profession ministering in Peru and leads the Vatican’s highly effective workplace of bishops, has been elected the primary American pope within the 2,000-year historical past of the Catholic Church. Prevost, 69, took the title Leo XIV.
Francis introduced Prevost, 69, to the Vatican in 2023 to function the highly effective head of the workplace that vets bishop nominations from world wide, some of the essential jobs within the Catholic Church. Because of this, Prevost has a prominence going into the conclave that few different cardinals have.
Many did not assume he was a contender on condition that he’s American, and there has lengthy been a taboo in opposition to a U.S. pope, given the geopolitical energy already wielded by the US within the secular sphere. However Prevost, a Chicago native, can also be a Peruvian citizen and lived for years in Peru, first as a missionary after which as an archbishop.
Prevost was additionally twice elected prior normal, or prime chief, of the Augustinian spiritual order, the thirteenth century order based by St. Augustine. Francis clearly had an eye fixed on him for years, shifting him from the Augustinian management again to Peru in 2014 to function the administrator and later archbishop of Chiclayo.
He remained in that place, buying Peruvian citizenship in 2015, till Francis introduced him to Rome in 2023 to imagine the presidency of the Pontifical Fee for Latin America. In that job he would have saved in common contact with the Catholic hierarchy within the a part of the world that counts nonetheless counts essentially the most Catholics.
Ever since he arrived in Rome, Prevost has saved a low public profile, however he’s well-known to the lads who depend.
Considerably, he presided over some of the revolutionary reforms Francis made, when he added three ladies to the voting bloc that decides which bishop nominations to ahead to the pope. In early 2025, Francis once more confirmed his esteem by appointing Prevost to essentially the most senior rank of cardinals, suggesting he would no less than be Francis’ alternative in an any future conclave.
Prevost’s comparative youth may depend in opposition to him if his brother cardinals don’t wish to decide to a pope who would possibly reign for one more 20 years.
The Rev. Fidel Purisaca Vigil, the communications director for Prevost’s outdated diocese in Chiclayo, remembers the cardinal rising every day and having breakfast along with his fellow clergymen after saying his prayers.
