VATICAN CITY – Cardinal Robert Prevost, a native of Chicago with years of pastoral and leadership experience in Peru, has been elected as the new head of the Roman Catholic Church. He has taken the papal name Leo XIV, following a conclave held at the Vatican on Thursday, May 8.
The announcement was made in St. Peter’s Square by a senior cardinal before a crowd of worshippers and visitors.
Prevost, 69, enters the papacy after serving as the prefect of the Vatican office responsible for evaluating bishop nominations globally. He was appointed to this influential position by the late Pope Francis in 2023, after nearly a decade as the Archbishop of Chiclayo in northern Peru. His appointment came amid Pope Francis’s efforts to increase representation and transparency within the Church’s governance.
The new pope’s dual identity as both an American and Peruvian citizen was notable during the conclave, considering the longstanding resistance to electing a pope from the United States due to geopolitical concerns. Despite this, Prevost’s deep roots in Latin America and his long-standing ties to the Augustinian religious order bolstered his candidacy.
He previously served two terms as the worldwide head of the Augustinians and gained Peruvian citizenship in 2015 while overseeing the Chiclayo archdiocese. Pope Francis later named him president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.
Prevost’s time in the Vatican has been marked by quiet influence and decisive reform. In one of the most significant changes under Francis’s pontificate, he was entrusted with overseeing the inclusion of three women in the Vatican body that advises on bishop appointments—a first in Church history.
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