Pope Leo XIV (born Robert Francis Prevost) is the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State. He was elected pope in the 2025 conclave on May 8, 2025, following the death of Pope Francis.

Born in Chicago, Illinois, Prevost was ordained as a priest for the Order of Saint Augustine in 1982. His service included extensive work in Peru from 1985 to 1986 and from 1988 to 1998, where he variously served as a parish pastor, diocesan official, seminary teacher, and administrator. Elected prior general of the Order of Saint Augustine from 2001 to 2013, he later returned to Peru as Bishop of Chiclayo (2015–2023). In 2023, Pope Francis appointed him prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, and made him a cardinal the same year.

A dual citizen of the United States and Peru, Leo XIV is the first pope from North America as well as from the United States, and the first to hold Peruvian citizenship. He is the first pope from the Order of Saint Augustine.

Robert Francis Prevost was born on September 14, 1955, at Mercy Hospital in the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. His mother, Mildred (née Martínez) Prevost, was a Chicago native whose family came from the 7th Ward of New Orleans. A school librarian, she graduated from DePaul University with a degree in education. His father, Louis Marius Prevost, was a United States Navy veteran of World War II and superintendent of Brookwood School District 167 in Glenwood, Illinois. Prevost has two older brothers, Louis and John.

Text above modified from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Sources

• "Pope Leo XIV." Wikipedia, revision of 9 May 2025. < link > Accessed 9 May 2025.
• Wikipedia has the article in 134 languages. Here are a few direct links (alphabetically): Deutsch; Espanol; Français; Italiano; Português; Polska.
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