Pope Leo XIV, the former Cardinal Robert F. Prevost, waves to the crowds in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican after his election as pope May 8, 2025. The new pope was born in Chicago. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
First North American elected pope of the Catholic Church
VATICAN CITY — Cardinal Robert F. Prevost, the Chicago-born prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops under Pope Francis, was elected the 267th pope May 8 and took the name Pope Leo XIV.
He is the first North American to be elected pope and, before the conclave, was the U.S. cardinal most mentioned as a potential successor of St. Peter.
The white smoke poured from the chimney on the roof of the Sistine Chapel at 6:07 p.m. Rome time and a few minutes later the bells of St. Peter's Basilica began to ring.
About 20 minutes later the Vatican police band and two dozen members of the Pontifical Swiss Guard marched into St. Peter's Square. They soon were joined by the marching band of the Italian Carabinieri, a branch of military police, and by units of the other branches of the Italian military.
As soon as news began to spread, people from all over Rome ran to join the tens of thousands who were already in the square for the smoke watch. Rome Mayor Roberto Gualtieri was among them.
French Cardinal Dominique Mamberti, protodeacon of the College of Cardinals, appeared on the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica at 7:12 p.m. He told the crowd: "I announce to you a great joy. We have a pope ('Habemus papam')," saying the cardinal's name in Latin and announcing the name by which he will be called.
Twenty minutes later, the new Pope Leo came out onto the balcony, smiling and waving to the crowd wearing the white papal cassock, a red mozzetta or cape and a red stole to give his first public blessing "urbi et orbi" (to the city and the world).
The crowd shouted repeatedly, "Viva il papa" or "Long live the pope" as Pope Leo's eyes appeared to tear up.
"Peace be with you," were Pope Leo's first words to the crowd.
"My dear brothers and sisters, this is the first greeting of the risen Christ, the good shepherd who gave his life for God's flock," he said, praying that Christ's peace would enter people's hearts, their families and "the whole earth."
The peace of the risen Lord, he said, is "a peace that is unarmed and disarming."
Signaling strong continuity with the papacy of Pope Francis, Pope Leo told the crowd that God "loves all of us unconditionally" and that the church must be open to everyone.
"We are all in God's hands," he said, so "without fear, united, hand in hand with God and with each other, let us go forward."
He thanked the cardinals who elected him, apparently on the fourth ballot of the conclave, "to be the successor of Peter and to walk with you as a united church always seeking peace, justice" and together being missionary disciples of Christ.
Telling the crowd that he was an Augustinian, he quoted St. Augustine, who said, "With you I am a Christian and for you a bishop."
"Together we must try to be a missionary church, a church that builds bridges and always dialogues, that is always open to receiving everyone like this square with its arms open to everyone, everyone in need," he said.
The new bishop of Rome told the people of his diocese and of the whole Catholic Church, "We want to be a synodal church, a church that journeys, a church that seeks peace always, that always seeks charity, that wants to be close to people, especially those who are suffering."
After asking the crowd to recite the Hail Mary with him, Pope Leo gave his first solemn blessing.
A longtime missionary in Peru, the 69-year-old pope holds both U.S. and Peruvian citizenship.
La Repubblica, the major Italian daily, described him April 25 as "cosmopolitan and shy," but also said he was "appreciated by conservatives and progressives. He has global visibility in a conclave in which few (cardinals) know each other."
That visibility comes from the fact that as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops for the past two years, he was instrumental in helping Pope Francis choose bishops for many Latin-rite dioceses, he met hundreds of bishops during their "ad limina" visits to Rome and was called to assist the world's Latin-rite bishops "in all matters concerning the correct and fruitful exercise of the pastoral office entrusted to them."
The new pope was serving as bishop of Chiclayo, Peru, when Pope Francis called him to the Vatican in January 2023.
During a talk at St. Jude Parish in Chicago in August, the then-cardinal said Pope Francis nominated him "specifically because he did not want someone from the Roman Curia to take on this role. He wanted a missionary; he wanted someone from outside; he wanted someone who would come in with a different perspective."
In a March 2024 interview with Catholic News Service, he said Pope Francis' decision in 2022 to name three women as full members of the dicastery, giving them input on the selection of bishops "contributes significantly to the process of discernment in looking for who we hope are the best candidates to serve the church in episcopal ministry."
To deter attitudes of clericalism among bishops, he said, "it's important to find men who are truly interested in serving, in preaching the Gospel, not just with eloquent words, but rather with the example and witness they give."
In fact, the cardinal said, Pope Francis' "most effective and important" bulwark against clericalism was his being "a pastor who preaches by gesture."
In an interview in 2023 with Vatican News, then-Cardinal Prevost spoke about the essential leadership quality of a bishop.
"Pope Francis has spoken of four types of closeness: closeness to God, to brother bishops, to priests and to all God's people," he said. "One must not give in to the temptation to live isolated, separated in a palace, satisfied with a certain social level or a certain level within the church."
"And we must not hide behind an idea of authority that no longer makes sense today," he said. "The authority we have is to serve, to accompany priests, to be pastors and teachers."
As prefect of the dicastery then-Cardinal Prevost also served as president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, where nearly 40% of the world's Catholics reside.
A Chicago native, he also served as prior general of the Augustinians and spent more than two decades serving in Peru, first as an Augustinian missionary and later as bishop of Chiclayo.
Soon after coming to Rome to head the dicastery, he told Vatican News that bishops have a special mission of promoting the unity of the church.
"The lack of unity is a wound that the church suffers, a very painful one," he said in May 2023. "Divisions and polemics in the church do not help anything. We bishops especially must accelerate this movement toward unity, toward communion in the church."
In September, a television program in Peru reported on the allegations of three women who said that then-Bishop Prevost failed to act against a priest who sexually abused them as minors. The diocese strongly denied the accusation, pointing out that he personally met with the victims in April 2022, removed the priest from his parish, suspended him from ministry and conducted a local investigation that was then forwarded to the Vatican. The Vatican said there was insufficient evidence to proceed, as did the local prosecutor's office.
Pope Leo was born Sept. 14, 1955, in Chicago, Illinois. He holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics from the Augustinian-run Villanova University in Pennsylvania and joined the order in 1977, making his solemn vows in 1981. He holds a degree in theology from the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago and a doctorate from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome.
He joined the Augustinian mission in Peru in 1985 and largely worked in the country until 1999 when he was elected head of the Augustinians' Chicago-based province. From 2001 to 2013, he served as prior general of the worldwide order. In 2014, Pope Francis named him bishop of Chiclayo, in northern Peru, and the pope asked him also to be apostolic administrator of Callao, Peru, from April 2020 to May 2021.
The new pope speaks English, Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese and can read Latin and German.
Pope Leo XIV, the former Cardinal Robert F. Prevost, waves to the crowds in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican after his election as pope May 8, 2025. The new pope was born in Chicago. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
First North American elected pope of the Catholic Church
VATICAN CITY — Cardinal Robert F. Prevost, the Chicago-born prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops under Pope Francis, was elected the 267th pope May 8 and took the name Pope Leo XIV.
He is the first North American to be elected pope and, before the conclave, was the U.S. cardinal most mentioned as a potential successor of St. Peter.
The white smoke poured from the chimney on the roof of the Sistine Chapel at 6:07 p.m. Rome time and a few minutes later the bells of St. Peter's Basilica began to ring.
About 20 minutes later the Vatican police band and two dozen members of the Pontifical Swiss Guard marched into St. Peter's Square. They soon were joined by the marching band of the Italian Carabinieri, a branch of military police, and by units of the other branches of the Italian military.
As soon as news began to spread, people from all over Rome ran to join the tens of thousands who were already in the square for the smoke watch. Rome Mayor Roberto Gualtieri was among them.
French Cardinal Dominique Mamberti, protodeacon of the College of Cardinals, appeared on the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica at 7:12 p.m. He told the crowd: "I announce to you a great joy. We have a pope ('Habemus papam')," saying the cardinal's name in Latin and announcing the name by which he will be called.
Twenty minutes later, the new Pope Leo came out onto the balcony, smiling and waving to the crowd wearing the white papal cassock, a red mozzetta or cape and a red stole to give his first public blessing "urbi et orbi" (to the city and the world).
The crowd shouted repeatedly, "Viva il papa" or "Long live the pope" as Pope Leo's eyes appeared to tear up.
"Peace be with you," were Pope Leo's first words to the crowd.
"My dear brothers and sisters, this is the first greeting of the risen Christ, the good shepherd who gave his life for God's flock," he said, praying that Christ's peace would enter people's hearts, their families and "the whole earth."
The peace of the risen Lord, he said, is "a peace that is unarmed and disarming."
Signaling strong continuity with the papacy of Pope Francis, Pope Leo told the crowd that God "loves all of us unconditionally" and that the church must be open to everyone.
"We are all in God's hands," he said, so "without fear, united, hand in hand with God and with each other, let us go forward."
He thanked the cardinals who elected him, apparently on the fourth ballot of the conclave, "to be the successor of Peter and to walk with you as a united church always seeking peace, justice" and together being missionary disciples of Christ.
Telling the crowd that he was an Augustinian, he quoted St. Augustine, who said, "With you I am a Christian and for you a bishop."
"Together we must try to be a missionary church, a church that builds bridges and always dialogues, that is always open to receiving everyone like this square with its arms open to everyone, everyone in need," he said.
The new bishop of Rome told the people of his diocese and of the whole Catholic Church, "We want to be a synodal church, a church that journeys, a church that seeks peace always, that always seeks charity, that wants to be close to people, especially those who are suffering."
After asking the crowd to recite the Hail Mary with him, Pope Leo gave his first solemn blessing.
A longtime missionary in Peru, the 69-year-old pope holds both U.S. and Peruvian citizenship.
La Repubblica, the major Italian daily, described him April 25 as "cosmopolitan and shy," but also said he was "appreciated by conservatives and progressives. He has global visibility in a conclave in which few (cardinals) know each other."
That visibility comes from the fact that as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops for the past two years, he was instrumental in helping Pope Francis choose bishops for many Latin-rite dioceses, he met hundreds of bishops during their "ad limina" visits to Rome and was called to assist the world's Latin-rite bishops "in all matters concerning the correct and fruitful exercise of the pastoral office entrusted to them."
The new pope was serving as bishop of Chiclayo, Peru, when Pope Francis called him to the Vatican in January 2023.
During a talk at St. Jude Parish in Chicago in August, the then-cardinal said Pope Francis nominated him "specifically because he did not want someone from the Roman Curia to take on this role. He wanted a missionary; he wanted someone from outside; he wanted someone who would come in with a different perspective."
In a March 2024 interview with Catholic News Service, he said Pope Francis' decision in 2022 to name three women as full members of the dicastery, giving them input on the selection of bishops "contributes significantly to the process of discernment in looking for who we hope are the best candidates to serve the church in episcopal ministry."
To deter attitudes of clericalism among bishops, he said, "it's important to find men who are truly interested in serving, in preaching the Gospel, not just with eloquent words, but rather with the example and witness they give."
In fact, the cardinal said, Pope Francis' "most effective and important" bulwark against clericalism was his being "a pastor who preaches by gesture."
In an interview in 2023 with Vatican News, then-Cardinal Prevost spoke about the essential leadership quality of a bishop.
"Pope Francis has spoken of four types of closeness: closeness to God, to brother bishops, to priests and to all God's people," he said. "One must not give in to the temptation to live isolated, separated in a palace, satisfied with a certain social level or a certain level within the church."
"And we must not hide behind an idea of authority that no longer makes sense today," he said. "The authority we have is to serve, to accompany priests, to be pastors and teachers."
As prefect of the dicastery then-Cardinal Prevost also served as president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, where nearly 40% of the world's Catholics reside.
A Chicago native, he also served as prior general of the Augustinians and spent more than two decades serving in Peru, first as an Augustinian missionary and later as bishop of Chiclayo.
Soon after coming to Rome to head the dicastery, he told Vatican News that bishops have a special mission of promoting the unity of the church.
"The lack of unity is a wound that the church suffers, a very painful one," he said in May 2023. "Divisions and polemics in the church do not help anything. We bishops especially must accelerate this movement toward unity, toward communion in the church."
In September, a television program in Peru reported on the allegations of three women who said that then-Bishop Prevost failed to act against a priest who sexually abused them as minors. The diocese strongly denied the accusation, pointing out that he personally met with the victims in April 2022, removed the priest from his parish, suspended him from ministry and conducted a local investigation that was then forwarded to the Vatican. The Vatican said there was insufficient evidence to proceed, as did the local prosecutor's office.
Pope Leo was born Sept. 14, 1955, in Chicago, Illinois. He holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics from the Augustinian-run Villanova University in Pennsylvania and joined the order in 1977, making his solemn vows in 1981. He holds a degree in theology from the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago and a doctorate from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome.
He joined the Augustinian mission in Peru in 1985 and largely worked in the country until 1999 when he was elected head of the Augustinians' Chicago-based province. From 2001 to 2013, he served as prior general of the worldwide order. In 2014, Pope Francis named him bishop of Chiclayo, in northern Peru, and the pope asked him also to be apostolic administrator of Callao, Peru, from April 2020 to May 2021.
The new pope speaks English, Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese and can read Latin and German.
First American pope: White Sox fan, Villanova grad, Peru missionary, Vatican leader
VATICAN CITY — Standing on loggia of St. Peter's basilica, newly elected Pope Leo XIV smiled, waved and appeared to hold back emotion May 8 as he introduced himself to the world as the 266th successor to St. Peter -- the first American to hold that role.
His first words: "Peace be with you!"
Pope Leo, 69, formerly Cardinal Robert F. Prevost, is the first pope from the United States. He assumes the chair of Peter with multifaceted leadership experience: He grew up in the Midwest, graduated from Augustinian-run Villanova University in 1977 with a math degree, ministered as a bishop in Peru, and led the Vatican dicastery that helps appoint, form and retire bishops.
Born in Chicago and ordained a priest for the Order of St. Augustine in 1982, Pope Leo held major leadership roles in his religious community before being ordained a bishop in 2014, ministering in the dioceses of Chiclayo and Callao, Peru. He was installed as the prefect of the Holy See's Dicastery for Bishops -- the powerful Vatican body responsible for choosing bishops throughout the world -- in April 2023 and was elevated that September to the rank of cardinal.
In 2013, as he prepared to leave his role as the Augustinians' global leader, he told Rome Reports that Augustinians "are called to live a simple life at the service of others, and in a special way, to reach out to those who are poor ... which includes, of course those who are monetarily poor, but there are many kinds of poverty in today's world."
Pope Leo was born in suburban south Chicago on Sept. 14, 1955. His family attended St. Mary of the Assumption Parish in Dolton, Illinois, and he is reportedly of Italian, French and Spanish descent. In 1977, Pope Leo entered the novitiate of the Order of St. Augustine in St. Louis. In September 1978, at the age of 22, he professed first vows, and three years later, he made solemn vows.
He earned a theology degree at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago before going to Rome to study canon law at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, also known as the Angelicum, receiving his licentiate in 1984. Three years later, he completed his doctorate, writing on "The role of the local prior in the Order of Saint Augustine."
By the time he received his doctorate, he had been ordained a priest for the Order of St. Augustine for five years and had ministered for a year in the order's mission of Chulucanas in Piura, Peru.
In 1987, he was elected the vocations director and missions director for his order's Midwest province, Our Mother of Good Counsel. A year later, he went to Trujillo, Peru, to direct a joint formation project for the region's Augustinian aspirants. Over the course of a decade in Trujillo, he served as the community's prior, formation director and as a teacher. Meanwhile, he served the Archdiocese of Trujillo for nine years as its judicial vicar and was also a professor of canon, patristic and moral law in the San Carlos e San Marcelo Major Seminary, which is currently celebrating its 400th anniversary.
In 1999, Pope Leo returned to the U.S. to serve as prior provincial for the Province of Our Mother of Good Counsel. In 2001, at age 46, he was promoted to his order's prior general, considered its supreme authority that oversees its administration and governance.
Pope Leo was reelected to the role in 2007, holding it for a total of 12 years until 2013. Under his leadership, the Augustinian provinces in North America reorganized in 2012 as the Federation of the Augustinians of North America, which fostered greater collaboration while allowing each province some autonomy.
For a year, from October 2013 to November 2014, he served as a "teacher of the professed" and provincial vicar.
In November 2014, Pope Francis appointed him apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Chiclayo, Peru -- an area in the northwestern part of the country that was then home to around 1.1 million Catholics, about 88% of the population at the time. He was simultaneously named a bishop, but of the titular diocese Sufar, under which title he was ordained a month later on Dec. 12, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
The following year, on Nov. 7, 2015, he was appointed bishop of Chiclayo. He also served for a year, from April 2020 to May 2021, as the apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Callao, Peru, whose see city is nearly 500 miles south of Chiclayo along the Peruvian coast.
In 2019, Pope Francis appointed him a member of the Congregation for the Clergy. A year later, he became a member of the Congregation for Bishops.
In January 2023, Pope Leo was appointed to lead the Vatican's Dicastery of Bishops, replacing the Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet, and given the personal title of archbishop. Pope Francis elevated him to a cardinal in September 2023, making him cardinal-deacon of Santa Monica of the Augustinians, a church immediately south of the Vatican dedicated to St. Monica, St. Augustine's mother. He was the first -- and so far only -- cardinal named to that church.
Speaking to The Associated Press after being made a cardinal in 2023, Pope Leo XIV said, "I think that it's not coincidental that Pope Francis chose me. I've been a missionary my whole life, and I was working in Peru, but I am American, and I think I do have some insights into the church in the United States."
He continued: "So, the need to be able to advise, work with Pope Francis and to look at the challenges that the church in the United States is facing, I hope to be able to respond to them with healthy dialogue, as we've already begun, with all the bishops in the United States, and to continue to look for ways to be church in the day and age that we're living."
In 2023, Pope Francis also named then-Cardinal Prevost president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, which studies and assists the church in Latin America.
Pope Leo's name is an apparent tribute to Pope Leo XIII, known as the father of Catholic social doctrine, who wrote the groundbreaking 1891 social encyclical "Rerum Novarum," also known as "On the Condition of the Working Classes," that responded to the state of industrial society at the time. With the third-longest recorded papacy (with St. John Paul II holding spot No. 2), Pope Leo XIII led the church from 1878 until his death in 1903.
Despite connecting himself to a pope who reigned more than 120 years ago, Pope Leo XIV appears to be a thoroughly modern prelate who keeps tabs on current events in Rome, Latin America and the U.S. Under "Robert Prevost," Leo XIV has maintained an X account with sporadic, mostly news-based retweets, such as requests in February to pray for Pope Francis and rebukes of Vice President JD Vance's comments on the ordering one's loves, or "ordo amoris," a Catholic concept Vance tried to invoke to justify Trump's immigration policy.
Pope Leo XIV reportedly enjoys playing tennis; speaks English, Spanish, Italian, French and Portuguese; and reads Latin and German. According to a May 8 interview with his brother John Prevost, Pope Leo is a Chicago White Sox fan -- and never cheered for baseball rival Chicago Cubs. "He was never, ever a Cubs fan," the pope's brother emphasized.
At age 69, Pope Leo is seven years younger than Pope Francis was when he was elected in 2013, and nine years younger than Benedict XVI when he was elected in 2005. He is 11 years older than St. John Paul II, who was 58, at his 1978 election.
Pope Leo was likely elected on the third vote of the conclave's second day, after a total of four votes. The 133 cardinal electors entered the conclave on the afternoon of May 7, with the closing of the doors of the Sistine Chapel broadcast live by Vatican Media.
The conclave was the largest and most geographically diverse conclave known in history, with cardinals representing 69 countries across five countries, with greater percentages of participating cardinals from Africa, Asia and Latin America than in other recent conclaves. By contrast, 115 cardinal electors -- half of them from Europe -- participated in the 2013 conclave that elected Pope Francis. In the 2025 conclave, 43% of electors were from Europe.
Prior to the conclave, the cardinal electors met for 12 general congregations, during which they shared their hopes, concerns and priorities for the church. The topics highlighted ranged widely, from evangelization, caring for the poor and addressing clergy sexual abuse, to the economy, peace-building efforts and synodality.
Many of the world's 252 cardinals -- including those over age 80 who were no longer eligible to elect a pope -- were already in or arrived in Rome within days of Pope Francis' death April 21. More than 220 cardinals, including then-Cardinal Prevost, attended his funeral on April 26.
Pope Leo has been commended for his interpersonal skills, with veteran American Vatican journalist John Allen Jr. of Crux describing him as "a moderate, balanced figure, known for solid judgment and a keen capacity to listen."
Pope Leo has also drawn criticism for his alleged role in the permissions given in 2000 for a priest of the Chicago Archdiocese, who had been credibly accused of multiple cases of child abuse, to live in an Augustinian friary less than a block from a school without informing the school.
While that situation occurred before the 2002 Dallas Charter, within which the U.S. bishops established procedures for addressing clergy sexual abuse, then-Bishop Prevost has also been accused of not fully investigating three sisters' sexual abuse allegations, made in 2022, against two priests in the Diocese of Chiclayo -- a charge the diocese has denied.
The case has drawn global attention because as head of the Dicastery for Bishops, then-Cardinal Prevost oversaw cases of clergy negligence under the worldwide norms Pope Francis established in 2019 with "Vos Estis Lux Mundi."
As a dicastery head, then-Cardinal Prevost participated in both sessions of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on Synodality that Pope Francis led in 2023 and 2024.
In remarks given from St. Peter's loggia before offering his first "urbi et orbi" blessing, Pope Leo commended Pope Francis' final blessing of the world on Easter morning, the day before he died, saying, "Let me follow up on that same blessing: God loves us, God loves you all, and evil will not prevail! We are all in God's hands. Therefore, without fear, united hand in hand with God and each other -- let us go forward. We are disciples of Christ. Christ goes before us."
Pope Leo also indicated he would continue the legacy of Pope Francis in developing a synodal style within the Catholic Church for the sake of its Gospel mission.
"We want to be a synodal church," he said. "A church that walks, a church that always seeks peace, that always seeks charity, that always seeks to be close especially to those who suffer."
The Augustinians' Philadelphia-based Province of St. Thomas of Villanova announced earlier this year that it was presenting its 2025 St. Augustine Medal to then-Cardinal Prevost, with a celebration scheduled for Aug. 28, the feast of St. Augustine.
In that 2013 Rome Reports interview, then-Father Prevost spoke about God and St. Augustine, the fifth-century philosopher, theologian and bishop who inspired the formation of the Augustinians in 1244.
"God is not someone or something that is absent and far away," he said. "And Augustine, in his spirituality, in his struggles, in his reflections that we see, for example, in the 'Confessions,' is able to open a window ... and to lead others to come to discover how God is working in their lives."
As the Catholic Church welcomes its first American pope, here are 10 things to know about Pope Leo XIV, formerly Cardinal Robert F. Prevost.
1. Chicagoan
Pope Leo was born Sept. 14, 1955, and grew up in the south suburbs of Chicago. His father, Louis Marius Prevost, was an educator, and his mother, Mildred Martínez, was a librarian. He has two older brothers, was active in his childhood parish and his brother John says he is a White Sox fan (even though their mom was a Cubs fan). His family is reportedly of French, Italian and Spanish origin, with Creole heritage on his mother's side. He loves the sport of tennis and plays regularly.
2. Cosmopolitan
While American, Pope Leo has a global perspective, having lived most of his adult life in Peru and Rome. Based on his assignments, it appears that he has spent less than five years combined living in the United States since his 1982 ordination to the priesthood.
3. Augustinian
He is a member of the Order of St. Augustine, a religious order that dates to 1244 and was founded to live the spirituality of early Christians. The order considers St. Augustine, a fifth-century theologian, philosopher and bishop of Hippo, its father. Before ordination, Pope Leo attended St. Augustine Seminary High School in Holland, Michigan, and Villanova University near Philadelphia, both Augustinian institutions. Augustinians are mendicant, meaning that they traditionally survive on begging or their own work, do not hold property and do not spend their life in a single location. Pope Leo is the first Augustinian to assume the chair of Peter, and the second member of a religious order to do so in nearly two centuries -- the first being the first Jesuit pope, Pope Francis.
4. Canonist
Pope Leo is a canon lawyer, having received his licentiate and doctorate in canon law from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, also known as the Angelicum, in Rome. He wrote doctoral thesis on "The role of the local prior in the Order of Saint Augustine." For nearly a decade he served the Archdiocese of Trujillo, Peru, as its judicial vicar, which oversees the diocesan tribunal. During that time he was also a professor of canon, patristic and moral law in the San Carlos e San Marcelo Major Seminary.
5. Leader
Pope Leo has an impressive range of leadership experience. After several pastoral and seminary formation roles in Chicago and Peru, he was elected in 1999 to oversee his order's province in Chicago, and then two years later, he took the helm of the order worldwide. He was reelected for a second six-year term, ultimately holding the Rome-based position for 12 years. Then, in 2014, Pope Francis appointed him to oversee the Diocese of Chiclayo, Peru, a role he held for nine years and that included a year-long stint as the apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Callao, Peru, whose see city is nearly 500 miles south of Chiclayo. In 2023, Pope Francis appointed him as prefect of the Holy See's Dicastery for Bishops, which oversees the appointments of bishops worldwide.
6. Baby boomer
At age 69, Pope Leo is seven years younger than Pope Francis was when he was elected in 2013, and nine years younger than Pope Benedict XVI when he was elected in 2005. He is 11 years older than St. John Paul II, who was 58 at his 1978 election.
7. Socially minded
His name is an apparent nod to Pope Leo XIII, who led the church from 1878 until 1903 and is especially known for his 1891 encyclical "Rerum Novarum," or "On the Condition of the Working Classes." That document responded to the state of the industrial society at the end of the 19th century and cemented Pope Leo XIII's position as the modern father of Catholic social doctrine. Pope Leo XIII also composed the popular St. Michael prayer, penned an 1879 encyclical calling for the rooting of Christian philosophy in the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas, and issued an 1899 apostolic letter condemning "Americanism," a worldview he feared was held by American prelates that bolstered American values such as pluralism and individualism to the detriment of Catholic teaching.
8. Peace bearer
Pope Leo's first words to the world were "Peace be with you" on a balcony of St. Peter's Basilica overlooking masses of people in the square. "Beloved brothers and sisters, this is the first greeting of the Risen Christ, the Good Shepherd who has given his life for the flock of God," he continued. "I, too, would like this greeting of peace to enter your hearts, reach your families, to all people, wherever they may be, to all peoples, to all the earth. … This is the peace of the Risen Christ, a disarmed peace and a disarming peace, humble and persevering. It comes from God, God who loves us all unconditionally."
9. Polyglot
Pope Leo speaks English, Spanish, Italian, French and Portuguese, and he reads Latin and German. He gave his first greeting May 8 in Italian but switched to Spanish to greet the faithful of his former Diocese of Chiclayo before giving the "urbi et orbi" blessing in Latin. On May 9, he began his first public homily with English but preached most of it in Italian.
10. Successor of Peter
On his first full day as pope May 9, Pope Leo preached before the College of Cardinals who elected him, speaking of an exchange between Jesus and St. Peter, the first pope. He called the church "an ark of salvation sailing through the waters of history and a beacon that illumines the dark nights of this world. And this, not so much through the magnificence of her structures or the grandeur of her buildings -- like the monuments among which we find ourselves -- but rather through the holiness of her members."
In Pope Leo XIV's first greeting after being introduced as pope May 8, he described himself as a "son of St. Augustine."
The first American pope has spoken in the past with affection about the fifth-century convert, bishop and intellectual powerhouse considered the father of his religious order, the Order of St. Augustine. Although their order was founded more than 800 years after Augustine's death, the Augustinians draw on his wisdom and holiness to shape their community.
In the early 13th century, loosely organized communities of hermits living in Italy's Tuscany region sought direction from Pope Innocent IV -- known to be an excellent canonist, or church law scholar -- to help them adopt a common rule of life to live with greater uniformity.
They were inspired, in part, by the recent formation of other new religious orders, including the Franciscans in 1209 and the Order of Preachers, also known as the Dominicans, in 1216. Both were mendicant orders, which meant they relied on begging and working for their sustenance, and unlike the long-established Benedictines and other monks, they did not vow stability, meaning they were not bound to a single monastery for life.
Pope Innocent advised the Tuscan hermits to organize under the rule of St. Augustine, a guide for religious life the saint had developed around the year 400. It covered the breadth of religious life, including purpose and basis of common life, prayer, moderation and self-denial, safeguarding chastity and fraternal correction, and governance and obedience.
Written initially as a letter for a community of religious women in Hippo, the diocese in modern-day Algeria that St. Augustine led, the rule made its way to Europe and influenced St. Benedict, who formed the Benedictines in Italy in 529.
The rule of St. Augustine had also informed the Dominicans, but when the Tuscan hermits adopted the rule, they also took the name and spiritual fatherhood of its author. Over time, they transitioned from an eremitical way of life to the mendicant model expressed by other medieval orders, which is why they are known as "friars." Women's religious communities also joined the Augustinians, producing saints including St. Clare of Montefalco and St. Rita of Cascia. Male Augustinian saints include St. John of Sahagún, an early Augustinian from Spain, and St. Nicholas of Tolentine, who was the first Augustinian to be canonized after the order's "grand union" in 1256.
Today the Order of St. Augustine is an international religious community that includes more than 2,800 members in nearly 50 countries, including the United States, where they are organized into three provinces, or geographical areas. Lay men and women also affiliate themselves with the Augustinians and the order's spirituality and support the order's work.
Augustinians in the U.S. have a strong reputation for education and founded Villanova University near Philadelphia and Merrimack College in North Andover, Massachusetts, and high schools in California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Oklahoma, Ontario and Pennsylvania. They also care for several parishes and have missions in Japan and Peru.
Contemporary Augustinians describe themselves as "active contemplatives" with varied ministries who are "called to restlessness" -- a nod to St. Augustine's famous description of himself in his influential autobiography, "Confessions": "You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You."
The U.S. Augustinians' vocations website describes this restlessness as "a divine gift" that they "believe … can direct us to God."
Despite the order's 800-year history -- and its Italian origins -- Pope Leo XIV is the first Augustinian to be named a pope.
A Chicago native, Pope Leo attended an Augustinian high school seminary, since closed, near Holland, Michigan, and then Villanova University, where he majored in math, before entering the Augustinian novitiate in St. Louis in 1977. He professed first vows in 1978 and final vows in 1981. He was ordained a priest the following year.
His ministries as a young priest included missionary work in Peru and seminary formation before he became provincial of his order's Chicago-based Midwest province, Our Mother of Good Counsel, and then his order's worldwide leader, a role he held for two, six-year terms.
Augustinians worldwide met the news of an Augustianian bishop with joy. The head of the Midwestern Augustinian province, Prior Provincial Father Anthony B. Pizzo, said May 8 that the community celebrated the news of Pope Leo's election and it was "honored that he is one of our own, a brother formed in the restless heart of the Augustinian Order."
"We see him as a bridge-builder, rooted in the spirit of St. Augustine, walking forward with the whole Church as a companion on the journey," he said.
After identifying himself as an Augustinian on St. Peter's loggia May 8, Pope Leo quoted St. Augustine: "For you I am a bishop, with you, I am a Christian."
"In this sense we can all walk together toward that homeland that God has prepared," he said.
In boots during floods, in vestments at Mass: Peruvians claim Leo XIV as a local
ROME — In a country where over 90% of the population identifies as Christian -- and nearly three-quarters as Catholic -- the election of a new pope is more than a Vatican affair. It's personal.
On May 8, when white smoke rose over St. Peter's Square, signaling the election of Leo XIV, Peru seemed to hold its breath. Schools went silent. Restaurants turned up their televisions. Taxi drivers, hairdressers and shopkeepers paused mid-conversation.
And then, as the name of Chicago-born Robert Francis Prevost, a former bishop of a dusty northern diocese of a country called "Poland of South America" because of its Catholicism and a naturalized Peruvian citizen, rang out, the country erupted.
"We screamed," said Aldo Llanos, a professor of philosophy and anthropology in the University of Piura. "It was like a World Cup goal."
During his first address as pontiff, Leo XIV -- formerly Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost -- paused to greet "my dear Diocese of Chiclayo, Peru, where a faithful people have accompanied their bishop, shared their faith and has given so much, so much to continue to be a faithful Church of Jesus Christ."
That "faithful people" includes Llanos, who recalled meeting then-Bishop Prevost in the course of his work with Opus Dei.
"In Chiclayo, Opus Dei runs programs for family and youth formation. Bishop Prevost knew us, trusted us. When he left, during an informal meeting we had with him, he told us that he had never met people who worked so hard -- and who were so obedient to their bishop."
Between 2015 and 2023, then-Bishop Prevost shepherded the Diocese of Chiclayo through some of its most difficult times. Most notably, he was at the forefront of the church's response to the catastrophic 2017 El Niño Costero, which brought record flooding, destroyed homes and cut off entire communities from vital resources.
"Bishop Prevost was never the kind of bishop who gave orders from behind a desk," said Janinna Sesa Córdova, who led Caritas Chiclayo from 2014 to 2024. "He was the face of Christ, the one who went out into the mud to help his people."
When the La Leche River overflowed, cutting off roads and displacing entire neighborhoods, the future pope mobilized the church. "He always made sure the church stood on its feet," Sesa said. "He coordinated with local businesses for donations, and with the help of civilian volunteers and the armed forces, we were able to airlift aid into isolated areas."
His legacy in Lambayeque, the region encompassing Chiclayo, was further sealed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Amid the oxygen shortages that cost countless lives across Peru, Bishop Prevost spearheaded one of the region's most important charitable initiatives: the Oxygen of Hope campaign.
"There was no oxygen. Families were dying," Sesa recalled. "Thanks to Msgr. Prevost, we were able to purchase two medicinal oxygen plants and provide free care to hundreds of families. His human sensitivity, especially in moments of crisis, won him the heart of every Chiclayano."
He was a hands-on bishop, ready to "come out in boots and a poncho," Llanos said,while "when it was time for Mass, he was impeccably vested -- a symbol of his ecclesial balance and reverence."
The fact that as the country was locking down, he walked across the city carrying the Blessed Sacrament, much like Pope Francis had done in St. Peter's Square during that historic blessing to the world in March 2020, made it clear that all his charitable endeavors were rooted in Christ, she said.
Unlike more confrontational church figures, Leo XIV built a reputation as a calm, balanced and deeply pastoral leader. "He is not one for public clashes or flashy gestures," said Llanos. "If he had a hard truth to share, or a correction to make, he did it in private."
According to the anthropologist -- in a region infested by corruption, illegal mining and organized crime -- "we know" of several harsh letters in which he chastised the locals.
His ability to navigate conflicting political and ecclesial positions with diplomacy led to him being appointed second vice president of Peru's bishops' conference in 2018 and later his appointment to Rome as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops.
"I don't know if he will maintain the same style, but opposite to some more confrontational bishops, always ready to give a statement to a camera or publicly denounce something, he would make his criticism known through social media, as he did with (Vice President) JD Vance on migration, or with (President Donald) Trump tariffs," Llanos said. "But beyond that, he has a very delicate way with people, and if he has to correct someone, he will do so in private.
Though his social convictions were clear -- rejecting gender ideology and the redefinition of marriage -- he avoided extremes.
"He'll always find a way to make his point," said Llanos, "but without condemning anyone on camera. That's what makes him so effective."
"Had he stayed in his native country, I think his sense of the church would've been very different," Llanos reflected. "But he came to Peru in 1985 -- a country in crisis -- and was changed by it. That experience left a mark."
Now, as pope, Leo XIV embodies the Peruvian church: fervently Catholic, socially engaged and close to the people. And when he returns to Peru, Llanos said, it will be "apotheotic" -- overwhelming, jubilant, unforgettable.
"He has left an indelible mark on the hearts of Chiclayo," Sesa, who worked in Caritas, added. "Because he was always there -- in the floods, the pandemic, the celebrations, and the sorrows. A bishop of the people. A true shepherd."
New pope's Black, Creole roots illuminate rich multiracial history of U.S.
A New Orleans genealogist has found that the first U.S.-born pope has Black and Creole roots -- and the discovery illuminates the nation's rich multiracial history, the experience of Black Catholics and the importance of the church's sacramental records.
Jari Honora, a certified genealogist and a family historian for the Historic New Orleans Collection museum, told OSV News that Pope Leo XIV's former surname, Prevost, immediately piqued his interest.
Yet for all his extensive research experience, even Honora was surprised when he discovered that the maternal grandparents of Pope Leo XIV, Joseph Martinez and Louise Baquié, were listed on several census documents as Black or mulatto.
Their 1887 marriage license names Martinez's country of birth as Haiti, with birth records showing his city of birth as Santo Domingo (then part of Haiti, and now the capital of the Dominican Republic).
"We have a lot of Prevosts here in New Orleans and in south Louisiana, but that wasn't the direction I was going in," Honora said. "I honestly thought that by him (Pope Leo XIV) being a native Chicagoan -- so many of the people in that Great Lakes region … who have French surnames, they're French Canadian, or they come from people who in more recent decades migrated from France. And that's what I was expecting."
The expectation "has proven to be true" on the pope's paternal side, with that lineage hailing from "French and Italian immigrant backgrounds," he said.
But "once you go down a rabbit hole, you don't stop," Honora said, and soon he "stumbled across a transcript of the Holy Father's mother's birth certificate, as well as her Social Security death index entry."
Those documents, he said, "both gave her parents' names as Joseph Martinez" -- commonly pronounced in New Orleans with a stress on the first syllable, he explained --"and Louise Baquié."
While he surmised that "Martinez could come from a lot of places," Honora said the name Baquié "sounds like it comes from quite close to home. That's a New Orleans name. And sure enough, the birth certificate gave … the birthplace of the mother as New Orleans."
Honora said he "just pursued it from there," and "lo and behold, the pope has deep, deep connections on his mother's side … to New Orleans."
Once the family had moved from New Orleans to Chicago sometime between 1910 and 1912, however, the family began identifying itself as white, as indicated in the 1920 U.S. Census.
The practice -- known as "passant (passer) à blanc," French for "passing (to pass) for white" -- was then a common means of avoiding racial discrimination, as described by Stanford historian Allyson Hobbs in her book "A Chosen Exile."
Honora told OSV News the switch in the racial identification of the pope's family reminded him of the 19th-century Healy family, whose 10 children -- several of them later assuming prominent roles in the U.S. Catholic Church -- were born of the union between Georgia plantation owner and slaveholder Michael Healy and his common-law wife Eliza, who was of mixed race.
Many of the couple's sons and daughters, considered slaves by birth, were able to pass as white, and were sent by their father to the nation's North -- which had gradually abolished most forms of slavery -- for their education. Several entered religious life, most notably Bishop James Augustine Healy of Portland, Maine, the first African American Catholic bishop; Jesuit Father Patrick F. Healy, who in 1873 became the 29th president of Georgetown University; Father Sherwood Healy, rector of the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston; and Eliza Healy, a superior in several convents of the Congregation of Notre Dame.
"All of them, in order to pursue their vocations in America back in the 1840s and '50s, they had to conceal their mixed race identity. They were born to a formerly enslaved woman and an Irish dad," said Honora. "And the fact that here, 150, 160-odd years later, our first American pope -- his family shares in that story of being of mixed race and then having to conceal that. It's just eerie. You can't make it up."
As a Catholic, Honora said he was "thrilled" by his findings about Pope Leo's ancestry.
"This (New Orleans) is such a Catholic city," he said. "The fact that we sort of share this distinction … with the Archdiocese of Chicago as being home to the first American pope is just incredible."
Honora has shared his research with both the Chicago and New Orleans archdioceses, and plans in the near future to develop an exhibit with the latter's archives "showcasing the wonderful sacramental sources we have on the Holy Father's ancestry."
Those sacramental records -- marking baptisms, confirmations, marriages and funerals -- are crucial, Honora said.
"We're so fortunate that we have sacramental records here in this archdiocese for whites, free people of color and the enslaved that go back to 1718," he said.
Honora called such records "sacred volumes," where "you can find … some of the poorest, the illiterate, immigrants, as well as the ancestors of millionaires and popes and kings. And they're all recorded the same in these books, because first and foremost, they're created by the church to document the reception of the sacraments."
He pointed to the 1997 circular letter on "The Pastoral Function of Church Archives," in which the Pontifical Commission for the Cultural Patrimony of the Church described such archives as "places of memory of the Christian community and storehouses of culture for the new evangelization."
And, he noted, "they serve as these wonderful genealogical sources, and I work with them a lot in our archdiocesan archives, which does a good job of preserving them."
Honora called for expanding resources to digitize diocesan records, adding that "some of the larger archdioceses" -- among them, Boston, Cincinnati and Philadelphia -- "have really made progress" in doing so.
He also hopes his discovery about the pope's roots will bring "greater attention" to the history of the nation's Black Catholics, and in particular to the canonization cause of New Orleans' hometowner Henriette Delille, a free woman of color who founded the Sisters of the Holy Family in 1842. She was declared "Venerable" by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010.
"Her ancestry is exactly the same as the Holy Father's," said Honora.
He quipped that his passion for his work and his faith make him "probably one of the few people, when the reading of the day is the genealogy of Christ, whose mind doesn't just start to wander."
Those scriptural family trees "help us to know that even Our Lord was situated in a very real historical and familial context -- to be of the house of David, to be the son of Joseph; this meant something," said Honora. "These are not just sort of additional references that we find in the Gospels. This linked him to the Old Testament and to his Jewish roots."
And, said Honora, "We all find ourselves in that position. We all have bonds to our biological families, our spiritual family, like our godparents and our confirmation sponsors, the people who stand witness at our weddings and that sort of thing. … It just speaks to the fact that we belong to a universal church, one that is for everyone and can be embraced by anyone."
Speaking of welcome, Honora said, "We're definitely hoping that when Pope Leo begins his papal visits, including North America, New Orleans has to be on his itinerary. It has to be."
The menu and the music will be on order for the pope, he added.
"We promise that we'll have good gumbo and a nice second line for him," said Honora, referring to a lively street parade tradition led by a brass band.
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Pope Leo XIV, the former Cardinal Robert F. Prevost, waves to the crowds in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican after his election as pope May 8, 2025. The new pope was born in Chicago. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
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