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Habemus Papam! Welcome Pope Leo XIV!

Salt + Light Media

Thursday, May 8, 2025

Photo of Pope Leo XIV standing on a balcony in white cassock and red shoulder cape, with Archbishop Ravelli in magenta shoulder cape standing behind him.
Photo courtesy of Vatican Media.
Habemus Papam!
We joyfully welcome our new Holy Father Pope Leo XIV, the 267th Successor of St. Peter, Bishop of Rome, and Servant of the Servants of God.
Here's his biography based on text from before the Conclave provided by the Libreria Editrice Vaticana:
Pope Leo XIV was born Robert Francis Prevost on September 14, 1955 in Chicago IL, U.S.A. In 1977 he entered the novitiate of the Order of Saint Augustine (O.S.A.) in the province of Our Lady of Good Counsel, in Saint Louis. On August 29, 1981 he gave his solemn vows. He studied at the Catholic Theological Union of Chicago, receiving a diploma in theology.
At the age of 27 he was sent by the Order to Rome to study canon law at the Pontifical St. Thomas Aquinas University (Angelicum). He received priestly ordination on 19 June 1982. He received his licentiate in 1984, and was then sent to work in the mission of Chulucanas, in Piura, Peru (1985-1986).
In 1987 he was awarded a doctorate with the thesis: “The role of the local prior in the Order of Saint Augustine.” In the same year he was elected director of vocations and director of the missions of the Augustinian province of the Mother of Good Counsel of Olympia Fields, Illinois. In 1988 he was sent to the mission of Trujillo, Peru as director of the joint formation project for Augustinian aspirants in the Vicariates of Chulucanas, Iquitos, and Apurímac. There he served as community prior (1988-1992), director of formation (1988-1998), and teacher of the professed (1992-1998). In the Archdiocese of Trujillo he was judicial vicar (1989-1998), and professor of canon, patristic, and moral law in the San Carlos e San Marcelo Major Seminary.
In 1999 he was elected provincial prior of the Mother of Good Counsel province, Chicago. After two and a half years, the ordinary general Chapter elected him prior general, a ministry again entrusted to him in the 2007 ordinary general Chapter. In October 2013 he returned to his province (Chicago) to serve as teacher of the professed and provincial vicar, roles he held November 3, 2014, when Pope Francis appointed him apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Chiclayo, Peru, elevating him to the dignity of bishop and assigning him the titular diocese of Sufar. On November 7 he took canonical possession of the diocese in the presence of the apostolic nuncio James Patrick Green; he was ordained a bishop on December 12, Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, in the cathedral of his diocese. He served as Bishop of Chiclayo from November 26, 2015. In March 2018 he became second vice president of the Peruvian Episcopal Conference. Pope Francis appointed him a member of the Congregation for the Clergy in 2019, and a member of the Congregation for Bishops in 2020.
On April 15, 2020, Pope Francis appointed him apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Callao, also in Peru.
On January 30, 2023 Pope Francis appointed Archbishop Prevost as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America. He was made a Cardinal during the Consistory on September 30, 2023.
We heartily congratulate Pope Leo, and pray that his ministry as Chief Shepherd of the Church is filled with courage, wisdom, and the hope of the Gospel.


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