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Robert Prevost, a missionary who spent his career ministering in Peru and leads the Vatican’s powerful office of bishops, has been elected the first American pope in the 2,000-year history of the Catholic Church and presented to the world by Cardinal Protodeacon Dominique Mamberti from the Loggia of Blessings of St. Peter’s Basilica.
Prevost born in Chicago USA a 69 member of the Augustinian religious order, took the name Leo XIV. He has appeared on the loggia of St. Peter’s Square this evening wearing the traditional red cape of the papacy a cape that Pope Francis had eschewed on his election in 2013.
The crowd in St. Peter’s Square erupted in cheers, priests made the sign of the cross and nuns wept as the crowd shouted “Viva il papa!” after the white smoke wafted few minutes after 7pm Ugandan time. Waving flags from around the world, tens of thousands of people waited to learn who had won.
Here’s what we know so far about the new pope:
He was born on September 14 1955 in Chicago, USA. He holds two nationalities of USA and Peru. He was made cardinal by Pope Francis in 2023 when he was Archbishop of Chiclayo in Peru also head of the Augustinian religious order.
At the time the 133 eligible cardinals who convened in the Sistine Chapel and voted him as the New Pope following the death of Pope Francis on 21st April 2025, he was the Prefect of the Dicastery of Bishops and also President of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America under the late Pope
Francis brought Prevost, 69, to the Vatican in 2023 to serve as the powerful head of the office that vets bishop nominations from around the world, one of the most important jobs in the Catholic Church. As a result, Prevost had a prominence going into the conclave that few other cardinals have.
Prevost had been a leading candidate except for his nationality. There had long been a taboo against a U.S. pope, given the geopolitical power already wielded by the United States in the secular sphere. But Prevost, a Chicago native, was seemingly eligible also because he’s a Peruvian citizen and lived for years in Peru, first as a missionary and then as an archbishop.
Prevost was also twice elected prior general, or top leader, of the Augustinian religious order, the 13th century order founded by St. Augustine. Francis clearly had an eye on him for years, moving him from the Augustinian leadership back to Peru in 2014 to serve as the administrator and later archbishop of Chiclayo.
He remained in that position, acquiring Peruvian citizenship in 2015, until Francis brought him to Rome in 2023 to assume the presidency of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America. In that job he would have kept in regular contact with the Catholic hierarchy in the part of the world that still counts the most Catholics.
Ever since he arrived in Rome, Prevost kept a low public profile, but he is well known to the men who count.
Significantly, he presided over one of the most revolutionary reforms Francis made, when he added three women to the voting bloc that decides which bishop nominations to forward to the pope.
In early 2025, Francis again showed his esteem by appointing Prevost to the most senior rank of cardinals, suggesting he would at least be Francis’ choice in an any future conclave.
The Rev. Fidel Purisaca Vigil, the communications director for Prevost’s old diocese in Chiclayo, remembers the cardinal rising each day and having breakfast with his fellow priests after saying his prayers.
Source: The Orange Country Register
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