Holy Father Pope Leo XIV

HIS HOLINESS POPE

LEO XIV

BISHOP OF ROME

THE VICAR OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, SUCCESSOR OF PRINCE APOSTLES, HIGH PRIEST OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, THE PRIMATE OF ITALY, ARCHBISHOP AND METROPOLITAN PROVINCE OF ROMAN CHURCH, SOVEREIGN GOVERNOR OF STATE VATICAN, SERVANT SERVANTS OF GOD

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Robert Francis Prevost, biography of the new Pope

The first Augustinian Pope, he is almost 70 years old. He chose the name Leo XIV. Former Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops. He was elected at 18:07 on Thursday, May 8, 2025, becoming the 267th Pope in history.

The first Augustinian Pope, he is the second after Francis to come from the American continent, but, unlike Pope Bergoglio, the 69-year-old American Robert Francis Prevost was born in the north of the continent and was a pastor in its south before his predecessor called him to head the Dicastery for Bishops and the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.

The new Bishop of Rome chose the name Leo XIV. He was born on September 14, 1955, in Chicago, Illinois, to Louis Marius Prevost, of French and Italian descent, and Mildred Martinez, of Spanish descent. He has two brothers: Louis Martin and John Joseph.

He spent his childhood and youth in the United States, studying first at the Augustinian Minor Seminary and then at Villanova University in Pennsylvania, where he graduated in 1977 with a degree in mathematics and philosophy. On September 1 of the same year, he entered the novitiate of the Order of Saint Augustine (OSA) in the Province of Our Lady of Good Counsel in Chicago in St. Louis, and on September 2, 1978, he made his first vows, and on August 29, 1981, he made his final vows.

He studied at the Catholic Theological Institute in Chicago, graduating with a degree in theology. At the age of 27, he was sent by his superiors to Rome to study canon law at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum). On June 19, 1982, at the Augustinian College of St. Monica in Rome, he received priestly ordination from the Most Reverend Jean Jadot, Vice-President of the Pontifical Council for Non-Christians, which is today the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue.

The Prevost obtained his licentiate in 1984, and the following year, while preparing his doctoral thesis, he was sent to the Augustinian mission in Chulucanas, Peru (1985-1986). In 1987, he defended his doctoral thesis on the topic "The Role of the Local Superior of the Order of Saint Augustine" and was appointed Vocations Director and Mission Director of the Augustinian Province of Our Lady of Good Counsel in Olympia Fields, Illinois.

A year later, he joined the mission in Trujillo, also in Peru, as Director of the Joint Project for the Augustinians of the Vicariates of Chulucanas, Iquitos, and Apurimac. For eleven years he served as superior of the community (1988-1992), responsible for formation (1988-1998) and for the formation of the professed confreres (1992-1998), was judicial vicar in the archdiocese of Trujillo (1989-1998) and professor of canon law, patristics and morals at the major seminary of San Carlos and San Marcelo. At the same time, he was entrusted with the pastoral care of the church of Our Lady of the Church, which later became the parish of Santa Rita (1988-1999), on the poor outskirts of the city, and from 1992 to 1999 he was administrator of the parish of Our Lady of Montserrat.

In 1999 he was elected Provincial Superior of the Augustinian Province of Our Lady of Good Counsel in Chicago, and two and a half years later, at the General Chapter of the Order of Saint Augustine, the confreres elected him Superior General, confirming him in 2007 for a second term.

In October 2013 he returned to his Augustinian Province in Chicago, where he was responsible for formation at the Monastery of Saint Augustine, first councilor and provincial vicar, positions he held until Pope Francis appointed him Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Chiclayo, Peru, on 3 November 2014. He began his ministry in this diocese on 7 November in the presence of the Apostolic Nuncio James Patrick Green, who consecrated him bishop a little over a month later, on 12 December, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, in the Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

His episcopal motto is “In Illo uno unum”, words that Saint Augustine uttered in his sermon “Commentary on Psalm 127” to explain that “although we Christians are many, in the one Christ we are one”.

On 26 September 2015, Pope Francis appointed him Bishop of Chiclayo, and in March 2018 he was elected second vice-president of the Peruvian Episcopal Conference, within which he also became a member of the Economic Council and president of the Commission for Culture and Education.

In 2019, Pope Francis included him in the Congregation for the Clergy, and the following year, in the Congregation for the Episcopal Conference. In the same year, on April 15, 2020, he was also appointed Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Callao, Peru.

On 30 January 2023, Pope Francis called him to Rome, appointing him Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and President of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, conferring on him the rank of Archbishop. And at the consistory of 30 September of the same year, he introduced him to the College of Cardinals with the title of Cardinal Deacon of Santa Monica, a title he officially assumed on 28 January 2024. As head of the dicastery, he participated in the last Apostolic Journeys of Pope Francis and in the first and second sessions of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the theme of synodality, which took place in Rome from 4 to 29 October 2023 and from 2 to 27 October 2024. He had already gained experience in participating in synodal assemblies in the past as Superior of the Augustinians and representative of the Union of Superiors Major.

At the same time, on October 4, 2023, Pope Francis included him in the Dicastery for Evangelization, Department for First Evangelization and New Local Churches; Doctrine of the Faith; for the Eastern Churches; for the Clergy; Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life; Culture and Education; Legislative Texts; Pontifical Commission for the Vatican City State.

On February 6 of this year, Pope Francis promoted him to the rank of Cardinal Bishop, granting him the titular see of Albano.

During his predecessor`s last hospitalization at the Agostino Gemelli Hospital, he led the Rosary for the health of Pope Francis on March 3 in St. Peter`s Square.

Source: vaticannews.va

Messages and sermons of Pope Leo XIV

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Events of Pope Leo XIV

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