Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost was elected the first American-born pope on May 8, becoming Pope Leo XIV.
Pope Leo was born on Sept. 14, 1955, in Chicago, Illinois, as one of three children to Louis Prevost and Mildred Martinez. He has two brothers.
For high school, he attended the Minor Seminary of the Augustinian Fathers, which prepares young men for the priesthood, and graduated in 1973.
Pope Leo moved to Pennsylvania, to attend Villanova University, and in 1982 left Chicago for Rome, where he was ordained as a priest and received a law degree in 1984.
Pope Leo would keep returning to Chicago during the course of his priestly career in the Order of Saint Augustine.
In 1999, after several years in Latin America, he was appointed Provincial Prior of the Order. He returned to Chicago again in October 2013, to hold several roles with the Augustinians.
It would be the last time Leo lived in the city—a year later, in December 2014, Pope Francis elevated him to the rank of bishop and sent him to Peru.
What’s in a Papal Name?
Cardinal Prevost has chosen the papal name Leo XIV, continuing a line of pontiffs that demonstrated great power through humility, instituted significant reforms, and worked toward peace.
He follows Pope Leo XIII, who was pontiff from 1878–1903 and is considered the father of Catholic Social Teaching, but stood firm against moral relativism.
The original namesake, Pope Leo I was elected by a rare unanimous decision in A.D. 440. He was known for his fierce defense of theological doctrine, and is credited with helping to overthrow the heresy of Pelagius, who claimed that man can be made perfect without God.
Pope Leo I was also credited for preventing Atilla the Hun, who had advanced across Europe, from attacking Rome.
The story goes that while Leo appeared in humble submission, Atilla saw the apostles Peter and Paul above him wielding flaming swords, and an army 10,000 times greater than his own.
The pope’s plea was received as a command and Atilla swore to a truce and moved his army across the Danube.
It is because of this moment that he is known as “St. Leo the Great.” Because of his tireless work, and his reputation for outstanding holiness, he was declared a Doctor of the Church in 1754.
The first four Pope Leos would go on to be canonized as Saints in the Church.
Another Francis, or Something New?
In 2023, after eight years as the Bishop of Chiclayo, Leo was called back to Peru by Pope Francis for service in the Roman Curia, which is the church’s administrative governing body.
Francis raised him to the rank of Archbishop and appointed him “Prefect of the Dicastery of Bishops,” a very important role where he oversaw the appointment of all Catholic bishops worldwide.
Pope Leo XIV previously supported Pope Francis’s push for synodality, which has been criticized and rejected by conservative clergy and lay people.
However, he did push back against Francis’ 2023 document Fiducia Supplicans, which allowed priests to bless same-sex couples.
He also opposed the implementation of school gender programs in 2012 while in Peru.
“The promotion of gender ideology is confusing, because it seeks to create genders that don’t exist,” he said.
Pope Leo XIV expressed similarities to his predecessor in his opening address on May 8, specifically in his devotion to the Virgin Mary, and in his stance that the church needs to be a bringer of peace to the world and welcoming to everyone.
“God loves you all,” he said in his first papal address.
“And evil will not prevail. We are all in the hands of God.”
—TJ Muscaro, Arjun Singh, Stacy Robinson
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—Stacy Robinson
