The Chicago native can also be a Peruvian citizen and lived for years in Peru, first as a missionary after which as an archbishop.
VATICAN CITY, — Pope Francis introduced Robert Prevost to the Vatican in 2023 because the highly effective head of the workplace that vets bishop nominations, one of the crucial necessary jobs within the Catholic Church. On Thursday, he ascended to grow to be Pope Leo XIV — the primary American pontiff.
Prevost, 69, needed to overcome the taboo in opposition to a U.S. pope, given the geopolitical energy already wielded by the US within the secular sphere.
The place is Pope Leo XIV from?
The Chicago native can also be a Peruvian citizen and lived for years in Peru, first as a missionary after which as an archbishop.
Based on the Chicago Solar-Instances, he was born and raised within the south suburbs of Chicago and was a part of St. Mary of the Assumption parish close to Dolton, Illinois.
He evoked his broad expertise in his first public remarks as pope, talking in Italian, then switching to Spanish — and saying not a phrase in English as he addressed the gang in Saint Peter’s Sq..
He had prominence going into the conclave that few different cardinals have.
Prevost was twice elected prior normal, or prime chief, of the Augustinians, the thirteenth century non secular order based by St. Augustine. Francis clearly had a watch on him for years, shifting him from the Augustinian management again to Peru in 2014 to function the administrator and later archbishop of Chiclayo.
He remained in that place, buying Peruvian citizenship in 2015, till Francis introduced him to Rome in 2023 to imagine the presidency of the Pontifical Fee for Latin America. In that job he would have stored in common contact with the Catholic hierarchy within the a part of the world that counts probably the most Catholics.
Ever since arriving in Rome, Prevost has stored a low public profile, however he was well-known to the lads who depend.
Considerably, he presided over one of the crucial revolutionary reforms Francis made, when he added three girls to the voting bloc that decides which bishop nominations to ahead to the pope. In early 2025, Francis once more confirmed his esteem by appointing Prevost to probably the most senior rank of cardinals.
The choice of a U.S.-born pope might have profound influence on the way forward for the U.S. Catholic Church, which has been sharply divided between conservatives and progressives. Francis, with Prevost’s assist on the assist of the bishop vetting workplace, had launched into a 12-year challenge to rein within the traditionalist tendencies in the US.
Prevost’s election “is a deep signal of dedication to social points. I feel it’ll be thrilling to see a unique sort of American Catholicism in Rome,’’ mentioned Natalia Imperatori-Lee, a professor of spiritual research at Manhattan College in New York Metropolis.
The bells of the cathedral in Peru’s capital of Lima tolled after Prevost’s election was introduced. Individuals outdoors the church expressed their want for a papal go to at one level.
“For us Peruvians, it’s a supply of satisfaction that it is a pope who represents our nation,” mentioned elementary faculty instructor Isabel Panez, who occurred to be close to the cathedral when the information was introduced. “We want him to go to us right here in Peru.”
The Rev. Fidel Purisaca Vigil, the communications director for Prevost’s previous diocese in Chiclayo, remembers the cardinal rising every day and having breakfast along with his fellow clergymen after saying his prayers.
“Irrespective of what number of issues he has, he maintains good humor and pleasure,” Purisaca mentioned in an e-mail.
Born in Chicago in 1955, Prevost joined the Order of St. Augustine in 1977. He attended Villanova College close to Philadelphia, the place he acquired a Bachelor of Science in 1977, and he bought a Grasp of Divinity diploma from Catholic Theological Union in Chicago in 1982.
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