First US-born pope to lead global Church
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Leo XIV, the first Augustinian and USA born Pope, had a long and interesting history before he was elected the 267th Bishop of Rome.
Prior to his election as the 267th Bishop of Rome, Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost was Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops.
Pope Leo XIV is the first Augustinian Pope and only the second, after Pope Francis, to come from the Americas.
He was born on September 14 1955, in Chicago, Illinois, to Louis Marius Prevost, of French and Italian descent, and Mildred Martínez, of Spanish descent. He has two brothers, Louis and John.
Called to the priesthood, he studied at the Minor Seminary of the Augustinian Fathers and then at Villanova University in Pennsylvania, where he earned a Degree in Mathematics and also studied Philosophy.
On September 1 1977 he entered the novitiate of the Order of Saint Augustine in Saint Louis and at the age of 27, he was sent by his superiors to Rome to study Canon Law at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum). He was ordained a priest on June 19 1982 in Rome.
Pope Leo obtained his licentiate in 1984 and the following year, while preparing his doctoral thesis, was sent to the Augustinian mission in Chulucanas, Piura, Peru.
This was the beginning of many years spent in Peru as a missionary in various roles in different locations.
In 1999, he was elected Provincial Prior of the Augustinian Province of ‘Mother of Good Counsel’ in Chicago, and two and a half years later, the ordinary General Chapter of the Order of Saint Augustine, elected him as Prior General, confirming him in 2007 for a second term.
In October 2013, he returned to his Augustinian Province in Chicago, serving as director of formation at the Saint Augustine Convent, first councillor, and provincial vicar. In November 2014 Pope Francis appointed him as Apostolic Administrator of the Peruvian Diocese of Chiclayo, elevating him to the episcopal dignity as Titular Bishop of Sufar.
He served as Bishop of Chiclayo, Peru, from 2015 to 2023.
In 2019, Pope Francis appointed him a member of the Congregation for the Clergy and in 2020, a member of the Congregation for Bishops. That year he was also appointed Apostolic Administrator of the Peruvian Diocese of Callao.
On January 30 2023, the Pope called him to Rome as Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and President of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, promoting him to the rank of Archbishop.
Pope Francis created him Cardinal in September 2023 and assigned him the Diaconate of Saint Monica. He officially took possession of his titular church on January 28 2024.
As head of the Dicastery, he participated in the Pope’s most recent apostolic Journeys and in both the first and second sessions of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on synodality held in Rome.
Meanwhile, on October 4 2023, Pope Francis appointed him as a member of the Dicasteries for Evangelisation (Section for First Evangelisation and New Particular Churches), for the Doctrine of the Faith, for the Eastern Churches, for the clergy, for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, for Culture and Education, for Legislative Texts, and of the Pontifical Commission for the Vatican City State.
Finally, on February 6 this year, he was promoted to the Order of Bishops, granting him the title of the Suburbicarian Church of Albano.
