Robert Prevost, the American Cardinal who was elected the new pope

American Cardinal Robert Prevost was elected the new pope on the second day of the conclave. He chose the pontifical name of Leo XIV. He is the first American pope in the history of the Catholic Church and is part of the Order of St. Augustine. The bells of St. Peter’s Basilica rang out throughout the Vatican. The new successor to St. Peter appeared on the balcony of the basilica and delivered his first apostolic blessing.

Cardinal Robert Prevost, 69, is a native of Chicago. He was elected Pope Francis’ successor by the College of Cardinals on Thursday, May 8, 2025, CBS News reports. Prevost spent much of his time serving in Peru and holds both U.S. and Peruvian citizenship.

Leo XIV is a leader with global experience, having spent much of his career as a missionary in South America and, most recently, heading a powerful Vatican office for episcopal appointments. He is expected to continue Pope Francis’ reforms.

In an interview with Vatican News shortly after becoming head of the Dicastery for Bishops, Prevost said, “I still consider myself a missionary. My vocation, like that of any Christian, is to be a missionary, to proclaim the Gospel wherever someone is.”

Francis and Prevost were classmates at the Catholic Theological Union seminary in Chicago from 1978 to 1982. They also both worked in Rome in the early 2000s.

White smoke rose from the chimney above the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican on Thursday evening, announcing the election of the 267th pope by the conclave, a signal that was cheered by people in St. Peter’s Square.

At the end of the conclave, the new sovereign pontiff retired to the so-called “Chamber of Tears”, that is, the sacristy of the Sistine Chapel, where he donned for the first time the papal vestments – prepared in three sizes – with which he presented himself to the crowd of believers. Radio and television stations from around the world that were present in St. Peter’s Square in Rome on Thursday to cover the papal conclave from a media point of view used the Starlink internet service, in the context of the telecommunications interruption around the Sistine Chapel, informs the ANSA news agency.

Robert Francis Prevost was born on September 14, 1955, in Chicago (Illinois, United States of America). In 1977, he entered the novitiate of the Order of Saint Augustine (OSA) in Saint Louis.

On August 29, 1981, he took solemn vows. He studied at the Catholic Theological Union of Chicago, obtaining a degree in theology. (source: https://press.vatican.va) At the age of 27, he was sent by the Order to Rome to study canon law at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum). He was ordained a priest on June 19, 1982.

He obtained his licentiate in 1984, and was then sent to work in the Chulucanas mission in Piura, Peru (1985-1986). In 1987, he was awarded his 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 missions of the Augustinian province of “Our Lady of Good Counsel” in Olympia Fields, Illinois, United States of America. In 1988, he was sent to the mission in Trujillo, Peru, as director of the joint project for the formation of Augustinian aspirants from the Vicariates of Chulucanas, Iquitos and Apurímac. In the archdiocese of Trujillo he was judicial vicar (1989-1998) and professor of canon law, patristic and moral law in the Major Seminary of “San Carlos e San Marcelo”.

n 1999, he returned to Chicago and was elected prior provincial of the province of “Our Lady of Good Counsel” in the archdiocese. Two and a half years later, he was elected prior general of the Augustinian Order and served two terms until 2013. (source: https://collegeofcardinalsreport.com)

On 3 November 2014, 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. On 7 November, he took canonical possession of the diocese in the presence of the apostolic nuncio James Patrick Green; he was ordained bishop on 12 December, in the cathedral of his diocese. (https://press.vatican.va) Robert Prevost has served as bishop of Chiclayo since 26 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 a member of the Congregation for Bishops in 2020. On 15 April 2020, he was appointed Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Callao. On 30 January 2023, Pope Francis appointed him Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and President of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.

He was created and proclaimed Cardinal by Pope Francis in the Consistory of 30 September 2023. Member of the Dicasteries for Evangelization, Doctrine of the Faith, Oriental Churches, Clergy, Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, Culture and Education, Legislative Texts; of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State.

Francis took his name from the 13th-century Saint Francis of Assisi, who rejected wealth and sought to care for the poor. The last pope to bear the name Leo, Leo XIII, focused much of his papacy from 1878 to 1903 on defending workers’ rights, calling for fair wages, fair working conditions and the right to join unions.

“By choosing the name Leo XIV, he shows that he is committed to the social teaching of the church,” said the Rev. Thomas Reese, a Jesuit commentator who closely follows the papacy.

The second clue about Leo was his choice of language and the words he spoke, which clearly emphasized the need for peace, an issue Francis has often focused on.

No part of his speech to the crowd gathered in St. Peter’s Square was in English, but rather in Italian, the language of the papacy, and a brief foray into Spanish to greet his former community in Peru.

He did not mention the United States. “La pace sia con tutti voi!” (Peace be with you!), Leo’s first words in public, echoed those used by Catholics during their celebrations, but they also offered an immediate message of peace in a world torn by conflict.