Robert Prevost, 69, comes from the US, where a Pope had never come from. He was a missionary for much of his life, has experience in leadership and took a diploma that can do advanced accounts, such as differential calculations
Robert Prevost is elected the first American pope and adopts the name Leo XIV
by Lauren Kent, Chris Lamb, Rob Picheta e Christian EdwardsCNN (Kara Fox contributed to this article)
Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost of the United States was elected the 267th Pope and climbed to the Basilica of St. Peter as the new leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.
It is now known as Pope Leo XIV.
PREVOST, 69, born in Chicago, Illinois, is the first Pope from the United States.
In his first words as Pope, Lion, visibly thrilled, he went to the crowd in St. Peter’s Square: “Peace be with all you.”
Addressing the crowd in St. Peter’s Square, Leo paid tribute to the late Francis, urging the crowd to remember the legacy of his predecessor before outlining his vision for the Catholic Church.
“We have to seek together to be a missionary church. A church that builds bridges and dialogue,” he said. Speaking of Italian to thousands of Catholic faithful, Leo appealed to people to “show our charity” to others “and dialogue with love.”
Leo was chosen just two days after a group of 133 cardinals gathered in conclave to select a new Pope.
This chronology coincides with that of the two previous meetings, suggesting that Prevost quickly impressed their peers during the secret process.
Francisco and Bento XVI were both revealed on the night of the second day of the conclave, while John Paul II, the oldest pope of modern times, was selected on the third day in 1978.
An exceptional leader
A leader with global experience, Predost spent much of his career as a missionary in South America and, more recently, directed a powerful Vatican Office to the appointment of bishops. He is expected to continue Francisco’s reforms.
Prevost worked for a decade in Trujillo, Peru, and was later appointed bishop of Chiclayo, another Peruvian city, where he served from 2014 to 2023. In 2015, he also received Peruvian citizenship.
The new Pope is a member of the Agostinian religious order – which has also led for over a decade as his general prior, which gave him the leadership experience of an order around the world.
Considered a highly capable and fulfilled leader, PREVOST has more recently directed the Vatican’s powerful office to the nominations of new bishops, the dicker for the bishops, evaluating the candidates and making recommendations to the late Pope. He was also chairman of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.
Although it is often said that cardinal voters would always be afraid to choose a US Pope, due to America’s enormous global political influence, Predost’s long experience in Peru may have mitigated these fears among voters.
“He is someone who, despite being from the West, would be very aware of the needs of a global church,” says Elise Allen, CNN analyst for the Vatican. “We are talking about someone who spent more than half of his ecclesial career abroad as a missionary in Peru.”
Allen added that Leo XIV is seen as a leader fit in Vatican’s circles because “he is able to do things without necessarily being authoritarian in the way he does things.”
“PREVOST is seen as an exceptional leader. Since a young age, he has been appointed to leadership functions,” says Allen. “It is seen as a calm and balanced, who is impartial and is very clear about what he thinks must be done … But he is not too energetic in an attempt to make him happen.”
PREVOST obtained the bachelor’s degree in mathematics at the University of Villanova, Pennsylvania, and then obtained the diploma in theology in the Catholic Theological Union of Chicago.
He was later sent to Rome to study Canon Law at the Pontifical St. Thomas Aquinas University and was ordained a priest in June 1982. Next, taught canon law at the Trujillo Seminary in Peru.
In an interview with Vatican News, shortly after assuming the direction of the dicker for the bishops, Predost said: “I still consider myself a missionary. My vocation, like that of all Christians, is to be a missionary, to announce the gospel wherever it is.”
Party days
The next few days are partying: the name Lion will be pronounced in homilies and masses throughout the Catholic world and will cause particularly cheerful scenes in his home country. In addition to the festivities, and the appointments of the new Pope’s agenda is the fact that 2025 is a jubilation year for the Church – a special celebration announced by Pope John Paul II for 25 years, which provides for a calendar filled with events organized by the Vatican.
But leading the greatest Christian denomination in an unpredictable era will require difficult and consequent decisions. The new Pope inherits a church whose image and ambitions were transformed by his predecessor; Francishi pushed the Church’s priorities from social issues such as abortion, homosexuality, gender roles and contraception, arguing, instead, the poor, the displaced and the needy of the world, and instilling a mission anchored in altruism.
The continuation or not of this trajectory will be a determining choice for the new Pope. Francisco’s rejection of opulence and his smoother tone on social issues were praised by some Western leaders, but there is still a faction in the church that advocates a more rigorous line on sex, gender, marriage, and migration issues.
Asked about the contributions of three women who have been named Dicker’s members to the bishops, Predost told Vatican News: “I think their appointment is more than a gesture on the part of the Pope to say that now there are women here too. There is a real, genuine and meaningful participation that they offer in our meetings when we discuss the candidates’ dossiers.”
You will also have to choose carefully when intervening on the world scene. Francisco has become increasingly political in the last years of his papacy, defending the rights of migrants, appealing to a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas and suggesting – to Kiev’s wrath – that Ukraine should stir “the white flag” and make concessions to end the Russian war in the country.
These ongoing conflicts and the rise of populism and authoritarianism around the world create a complicated context in which the new Pope – himself an important figure of world diplomacy – will act.
And you will also have to deal with internal crises. The fact that Francis was not being able to end the scandal of sexual abuse of minors in the church, which has been dragging on for years, will also reverberate in the papacy of his successor. Although he said defensive about his history in this matter and has given some important steps to resolve abuse -related systemic issues, the previous Pope was accused by groups of survivors of not lingering bishops and cardinals accused of covering abuse.
Previously, by addressing the responsibility of combating clerical abuse, Prevost told Vatican News: “There are places where a good job has been done for years and the rules are being put into practice. At the same time, I believe there is still much to learn.”
Last year, the Francisco Commission for the protection of children stated, in its first report, that some parts of the church continue to ensure that abuse are properly denounced and expressed their concern about “lack of transparency” in the way the Vatican treats the cases.
Editor’s Note: You can see the solution to the mathematical problem of the title
