The American cardinal Bishop Robert Francis Prevost, was elected pope on May 8, 2025. Born in Chicago in 1955, distinguished himself by an international journey between missions in Peru, responsibilities at the head of the Order of Saint-Augustin and high functions at the Vatican. Polyglot, canonist and man of dialogue, he was named Cardinal in 2023, before accessing the head of the dicastery for the bishops, then being elected pope under the name of Léon XIV.
Origin and training
Bishop Robert Francis Prevost was born on September 14, 1955 in Chicago, the United States, in a family of French, Italian and Spanish ancestry. After completing his secondary studies at the small seminar of the Order of Saint-Augustin in 1973, he obtained a Bachelor in Mathematics at Villanova University near Philadelphia in 1977. He joined the Augustins the same year, pronounced his first wishes in 1978 and his solemn profession in 1981. He received a license in theology of the Catholic Theological Union of Chicago.
missionary priest
Ordained a priest in Rome on June 19, 1982, he pursued studies in canon law at Pontifical Saint-Thomas-d’Aquin university (Angelicum), where he obtained a license in 1984 and a doctorate in 1987, with a thesis on the role of the local prior in the order of Saint-Augustin. As early as 1985, he went on a mission to Peru, where he became a chancellor of the territorial prelature of Chulucanas and vicar of the cathedral. After a short return to the United States, he returned to Peru in 1988, where he headed the Augustinian seminar of Trujillo, teaches canonical law, patristics and morals, and founded a parish in the poor periphery of the city.
responsibility in the order of Saint-Augustin
In 1999, he was elected provincial in the Midwest province of Augustins in Chicago. From 2001 to 2013, he was prior general of the Order of Saint-Augustin, thus exercising the highest responsibility of his religious order.
évêque d’presht du Vatican and Cardinalat
In November 2014, Pope Francis appointed him apostolic administrator, then bishop of the Diocese of Chiclayo in Peru in 2015, in a difficult context for the local church. He is then called to Rome to succeed Cardinal Ouellet as the prefect of the Dicaster for the bishops, taking up his duties on April 12, 2023. This dicastery plays a central role in the selection of bishops around the world. Bishop Prevost is created Cardinal by Pope Francis on September 30, 2023.
A polyglot pontiff and close to peoples
Mastering English, Spanish, Italian, French and Portuguese, the new Pope is recognized for his ability to dialogue with various cultures and adapt to local realities. His experience in Peru, especially in crisis contexts, has forged an attentive pastor to contemporary challenges and synodality, theme dear to the previous pontificate. His motto, “in illelo unum” (“in the one who is one, being united”), announces a pontificate placed under the sign of unit and proximity to the peripheries.
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