Cardinal Robert Prevost was elected the new pope and leader of the Roman Catholic Church on Thursday.
En español:Quién es Robert Prevost, el nuevo Papa León XIV de la Iglesia Católica
Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV, appeared on the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica around 70 minutes after white smoke billowed from a chimney atop the Sistine Chapel. He is the 267th pope.
Here’s what to know about the new American pope:
American Born
Robert Prevost was born in Chicago in 1955.
“I was born in the United States … But my grandparents were all immigrants, French, Spanish … I was raised in a very Catholic family, both of my parents were very engaged in the parish,” he told RAI Italian public television before the conclave.
He told RAI that he talked with his father about “very concrete things, doubts that a young man may have [such as] ‘perhaps it is better [that] I leave this life and I get married, I have children, a normal life”.
He has a bachelor’s degree from Villanova University in Philadelphia, a master’s from the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, and a doctorate in Church law from the Pontifical College of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome. He entered into the Order of Saint Augustine in 1977 in St. Louis.
He is known to speak English, Spanish, Italian, French and Portuguese.
Related:How are leaders across the globe reacting to news of the first American pope?
Experience in Peru
Prevost has extensive experience in Peru, starting his work there in 1985. He was first a missionary and then an archbishop.
In 2023, he became the leader of the Vatican’s powerful dicastery for bishops, in charge of vetting nominations for bishops around the world. Pope Francis clearly had an eye on him for years and sent him to run the diocese of Chiclayo, Peru, in 2014.
Jesus Leon Angeles, coordinator of a Catholic group in Chiclayo who has known Prevost since 2018, called him a “very simple” person who would go out of his way to help others.
Leon Angeles said he is a person with leadership skills, “but at the same time, he knows how to listen. He has that virtue.”
“The cardinal has the courtesy to ask for an opinion, even if it’s from the simplest or most humble person,” she said. “He knows how to listen to everyone.”
Leon Angeles said Prevost had shown special concern for Venezuelan migrants in Peru, saying: “He is a person who likes to help.” More than 1.5 million Venezuelans have moved to Peru in recent years, partly to escape their country’s economic crisis.
New Papal name
Prevost will take the name Pope Leo XIV, a fellow cardinal announced to the crowds in St. Peter’s Square. It was not immediately clear what inspired his choice of papal name.
In his own words
In a 2023 interview with the Vatican’s news outlet, Prevost focused on the importance of evangelization to help the Church grow.
“We are often preoccupied with teaching doctrine … but we risk forgetting that our first task is to teach what it means to know Jesus Christ,” he said.
Prevost said during a 2023 Vatican news conference: “Our work is to enlarge the tent and to let everyone know they are welcome inside the Church.”
His first words at Pope Leo XIV
In his first words, Pope Leo XIV, history’s first American pope Robert Prevost, said “Peace be with you.”
From the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica, he recalled that he was an Augustinian priest, but a Christian above all, and a bishop, “so we can all walk together.”
He spoke in Italian and then switched to Spanish, recalling his many years spent as a missionary and then archbishop of Chiclayo, Peru.
What his friend says
Rev. Mark Francis, a friend of Prevost since the 1970s, told Reuters the cardinal was a firm supporter of his predecessor’s papacy, and especially of the late pontiff’s commitment to social justice issues.
“He was always friendly and warm and remained a voice of common sense and practical concerns for the Church’s outreach to the poor,” said Francis, who attended seminary with Prevost and later knew him when they both lived in Rome in the 2000s.
“He has a wry sense of humor, but was not someone who sought the limelight,” said Francis, who leads the U.S. province of the Viatorian religious order.
