Robert Francis Prevost was born on September 14, 1955 in Chicago, U.S.A. He is the son of Louis Marius Prevost (1920-1997) and of Mildred Agnes Martínez (1911-1990), both also Chicago natives. They got married on January 29, 1949 in Chicago's Holy Name Cathedral.
His father, of French and Italian descent, was a United States Navy veteran of World War II, who later became superintendent of Brookwood School District 167 in Glenwood, Illinois. His mother, librarian involved in parish life, was a Métis woman of Louisiana Creole descent, and two of her sisters were nuns. She graduated from DePaul University with a bachelor's degree in library science in 1947.
His paternal grandfather, Jean Lanti Prevost, alias John R. Prevost, born in Turin, Italy, and died in Detroit in 1960, was a professor of Romance languages. His paternal grandmother, Suzanne Louise Marie Fontaine, born in Le Havre, France, and died in Detroit in 1979, was a Frenchwoman of Normandy origin who arrived in the United States in 1915.
Known as "Rob" to his family and "Bob" to friends as an adult, Robert Francis Prevost was raised in Dolton, Illinois, a suburb bordering the far South Side of Chicago, with his two older brothers, Louis Martín and John Joseph, respectively a Navy veteran living in Florida and a retired school principal living in Chicago.
Robert sang in the choir and served as an altar boy, aspiring to the priesthood from an early age, and performed Mass at home with his brothers, on an ironing board with candy as host. Every evening after dinner, the family would gather in the living room to recite the Rosary.
In 1973, Prevost enrolled in Villanova University, an Augustinian college located near Philadelphia, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics in 1977. He returned to his father's native Hyde Park to obtain a Master of Divinity from Catholic Theological Union in 1982 and taught physics and math at St. Rita of Cascia High School in Chicago.
He earned a Licentiate of Canon Law in 1984, followed by a Doctor of Canon Law degree in 1987, both from the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Rome. His doctoral thesis was a study of the role of the local prior in the Order of Saint Augustine.
On September 1, 1977, Prevost joined the Order of Saint Augustine as a novice, residing for one year at Immaculate Conception Church in St. Louis, Missouri. He moved to Chicago, and took his first vows on September 2, 1978, and made his solemn vows on August 29, 1981.
Prevost was ordained a priest in Rome, at the Church of Santa Monica degli Agostiniani by Archbishop Jean Jadot on June 19, 1982.
Robert Francis joined the Augustinian mission in Peru in 1985, serving as chancellor of the Territorial Prelature of Chulucanas until 1986. In 1987, he is called back by his Order to the U.S.A. as vocation director and missions director of the Augustinian Province of Chicago.
Returning to Peru in 1988, he spent a decade heading the Augustinian seminary in Trujillo, teaching canon law in the diocesan seminary, serving as prefect of studies, acting as a judge in the regional ecclesiastical court, and working in parish ministry on the city's outskirts.
In 1998, Prevost was elected Prior Provincial of the Order of St. Augustine's Province of Our Mother of Good Counsel based in Chicago, assuming the role on March 8, 1999.
Elected Prior General of the Order of Saint Augustine in 2001, Prevost served two consecutive, six-year terms until 2013. His twenty-minute election is one of the fastest in the Order's history. From 2013 to 2014, Prevost served as director of formation at the Convent of St. Augustine in Chicago, and as first councilor and provincial vicar of the Province of Our Mother of Good Counsel.
On November 3, 2014, Pope Francis appointed Prevost as the apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Chiclayo in northern Peru. He was consecrated on December 12, 2014 (the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe), at St. Mary's Cathedral in Chiclayo by Archbishop James Green, Apostolic Nuncio to Peru. On September 26, 2015, he was named Bishop of Chiclayo. As required by a 1980 pact between the Holy See and Peru, Prevost became a naturalized Peruvian citizen before becoming bishop. On July 13, 2019, Prevost was appointed a member of the Congregation for the Clergy.
On April 15, 2020, he became apostolic administrator of Callao, Peru. On November 21, 2020, he joined the Dicastery for Bishops in Rome.
On January 30, 2023, Pope Francis appointed Prevost prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and President of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, with the title Archbishop-Bishop emeritus of Chiclayo. He replaces Cardinal Marc Ouellet, who had reached the age limit. He takes office on April 12, 2023. As Prefect, he plays an essential role in the evaluation and recommendation of episcopal candidates worldwide, gaining greater visibility within the Catholic Church.
On September 30, 2023, Francis created Prevost a cardinal with the rank of cardinal-deacon and assigned the deaconry of Santa Monica degli Agostiniani. On February 6, 2025, Francis promoted Prevost to cardinal-bishop, assigning him as titular bishop of the Suburbicarian Diocese of Albano.
Prevost, aged 69, was elected pope on May 8, 2025, the second day of the conclave, on the fourth ballot, becoming the first American and Peruvian pontiff. As the 267th Pope to be elected, he is seen as a compromise candidate, able to bridge the gap between progressive and conservative camps. But his past statements, and those of his first days as pope, suggest that he is definitively "Catholic" in tendency, i.e. faithful to the tradition of the Church.
For example, in his first appearance on the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica after his election, Leo XIV appeared in the traditional pontifical red stole and mozzetta, vestments Pope Francis had not worn at his election in 2013. The following Sunday, he sang the Regina coeli prayer in Latin. And on May 14, 2025, Leo XIV told participants in the Jubilee of the Eastern Churches:
"The Church needs you. The contribution that the Christian East can offer us today is immense! We have great need to recover the sense of mystery that remains alive in your liturgies, liturgies that engage the human person in his or her entirety, that sing of the beauty of salvation and evoke a sense of wonder at how God's majesty embraces our human frailty!
It is likewise important to rediscover, especially in the Christian West, a sense of the primacy of God, the importance of mystagogy and the values so typical of Eastern spirituality: constant intercession, penance, fasting, and weeping for one's own sins and for those of all humanity! It is vital, then, that you preserve your traditions without attenuating them, for the sake perhaps of practicality or convenience, lest they be corrupted by the mentality of consumerism and utilitarianism. Your traditions of spirituality, ancient yet ever new, are medicinal."
Leo XIII's first words to the crowd at his election on May 8, from the loggia (balcony) of St. Peter's Basilica, already filled us with great hope:
"Peace be with you all! Dear brothers and sisters, these are the first words spoken by the risen Christ, the Good Shepherd who laid down his life for God's flock. I would like this greeting of peace to resound in your hearts, in your families, among all people, wherever they may be, in every nation and throughout the world. Peace be with you! It is the peace of the risen Christ. A peace that is unarmed and disarming, humble and persevering. A peace that comes from God, the God who loves us all, unconditionally…
"God loves us, God loves you all, and evil will not prevail! All of us are in God's hands. So, let us move forward, without fear, together, hand in hand with God and with one another other! We are followers of Christ. Christ goes before us. The world needs his light. Humanity needs him as the bridge that can lead us to God and his love."
Leo XIV's papal emblems are those he chose at his consecration as Bishop of Chiclayo in Peru: a white fleur-de-lys on a blue background, representing the Blessed Virgin Mary under the title of Immaculate Conception, patron saint of the Diocese of Chiclayo. The lower part features an image reminiscent of the Order of Saint Augustine: a closed book with a heart pierced by an arrow. This image recalls Saint Augustine's conversion experience, which he explained with the words "Vulnerasti cor meum verbo tuo", "You pierced my heart with your Word".
His episcopal motto (and now his motto as pope) is: In Illo uno unum, an expression taken from the commentary on Psalm 127 by St. Augustine of Hippo, translated as "In Him who is One, we are One".
In an interview with the Vatican media in July 2023, Cardinal Prevost himself explained his motto: "As my episcopal motto shows, unity and communion are part of the charism of the Order of St. Augustine and also of my way of acting and thinking. I think it's very important to promote communion in the Church... So, as an Augustinian, promoting unity and communion is fundamental for me. St. Augustine talks a lot about unity in the Church and the need to live it".
Finally, on May 9, 2025, he ended his homily at his first Mass in the Sistine Chapel, in the presence of the cardinals, by referring to the words of St. Ignatius of Antioch:
"The words (of St. Ignatius of Antioch) apply more generally to an indispensable commitment for all those in the Church who exercise a ministry of authority. It is to move aside so that Christ may remain, to make oneself small so that he may be known and glorified (cf. Jn 3:30), to spend oneself to the utmost so that all may have the opportunity to know and love him. May God grant me this grace, today and always, through the loving intercession of Mary, Mother of the Church."
This is the grace we wish our Holy Father Pope Leo XIV, and we accompany him with our most sincere prayers.
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