“Peace be with you all,” were the new Pope’s first words when he greeted crowds at St Peter’s Square on Thursday evening. 69-year-old Robert Prevost – the 267th Pope and the first American to hold the position – will be known as Leo XIV. His appointment comes as a surprise, as analysts had considered him an outsider. Who is he? And how did he rise to become the most important figure in the Catholic world?
Religion & Philosophy
Who is Robert Prevost, Pope Leo XIV?
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Prevost was born in Chicago on 14 September 1955. He decided at a young age to follow a religious path and joined the Augustinian Order, a Catholic religious order of monks and priests that dates back to the 13th century.
In 1977, he obtained a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Villanova University, before obtaining a master’s in theology from the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. He went on to pursue a doctorate at the Pontifical College of St Thomas Aquinas in Rome.
In 1982, he was ordained a priest in Chicago, but he has spent much of his life outside the US. In 1985, he left for the Augustinian mission in Peru and became chancellor of the territorial prelature of Chulucanas.
He returned to the US in 1987 but a year later returned to Peru and served as director of the Augustinian seminary in Trujillo for 10 years. In 1999, he returned again to Chicago and in 2001 became Superior General of the Augustinian Order, a position he held for 12 years.
In January 2023, Prevost was appointed cardinal and prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, an important position within the Roman Curia of the Vatican that selects and manages bishops, where he demonstrated diplomatic skills and gained considerable power within the Vatican.
However, analysts saw him as an outsider who had little chance of becoming the head of the Roman Catholic Church.
Prevost is considered a solid leader and a pragmatic bridge builder between cultures and ecclesiastical traditions. He is neither outspokenly conservative nor progressive, which made it easier for him to gain support in the conclave.
It took the 133 cardinals two days of deliberation before they reached their decision. Leo XIV faces high expectations as well as internal challenges, not least the deep divisions within the American church.
In a speech in 2012, he complained that Western media and popular culture promoted “sympathy for beliefs and practices contrary to the Gospel”, citing the “homosexual lifestyle” and “alternative families consisting of same-sex partners and their adopted children”.
As bishop in Chiclayo, Peru, he opposed a government plan to introduce gender education in schools. Although he is praised in Peru for supporting Venezuelan immigrants and visiting remote communities, he has been criticised for his management of priests accused of sexual abuse.
I am truly perplexed that no consideration has been given to the files of one of the largest victim organisations for abuse in the Church worldwide
At the end of March, SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests), a large American association, filed a complaint with the Vatican against six cardinals who were alleged to have protected perpetrators of sexual abuse. Prevost was one of those named.
Jan Puype, a victim of sexual abuse in the Church in Belgium, calls Prevost’s subsequent election “a slap in the face”.
Puype testified in the VRT documentary Godvergeten (Godforsaken) about years of sexual abuse at the college in Waregem. He was one of 15 victims who were able to speak to Pope Francis during his visit to Belgium last September.
“It is difficult to understand how cardinals who have been named can simply participate in the conclave and even be elected,” he said
Priest Rik Devillé, who works on behalf of Belgian victims of sexual abuse, also expressed his disappointment in the election.
“I am truly perplexed that absolutely no consideration has been given to the files of one of the largest victim organisations for abuse in the Church worldwide,” he said, referring to the SNAP complaint.