The newly chosen Pope Leo XIV, Cardinal Robert Prevost of the United States appears on the balcony of the Basilica of San Pedro, in the Vatican | Photo credit: Reuters
Robert Prevost, the choice of the world’s Catholic cardinals to serve as a church leader of 1.4 billion members, is the first Pope of the United States and an unknown relative on the global stage.
At 69 and originally from Chicago, Prevost has spent most of his career as a missionary in Peru and became a cardinal only in 2023. He has given few media interviews.
It takes the name Papal Leo XIV and happens to Pope Francis, who had directed the Church since 2013.
Reverend Mark Francis, a Premost friend since the 1970s, told Reuters that the cardinal was a firm defender of the papacy of his predecessor, and the special commitment or the late Pontiff with the problems of social justice.
“He was always kind and warm and remained a voice of common sense and practical conerns for the reach of the Church to the poor,” said Francis, who attended the seminar with Prevost and then met him when they both live in the 2000s.
“It has an ironic sense of humor, but it was not someone who sought the light of the Lima,” said Francis, who leads the American province of the viator religious order.
Prevost served for the first time as a bishop in Chiclayo, in northwestern Peru, from 2015 to 2023, and became a Peruvian citizen in 2015, so it has dual nationalities.
Pope Francis brought him to Rome that year to head the Vatican office in charge of choosing which priests they manage as Catholic bishops worldwide, which means that he has had a hand to select many of the world’s bishops.
Jesús Leon Angeles, coordinator of a Catholic group in Chiclayo who knows Prevost since 2018, called him a “very simple” person who would do everything possible to help others.
Leon Angeles said Prevost had shown special concern for Venezuelan migrants in Peru, saying: “He is a person who likes to help.” More than 1.5 million Venezuelans have moved to Peru in recent years, partly to escape the economic crisis of their country.
In a 2023 interview with the Vatican media, Prevosted focused on the importance of evangelization to help the church grow.
“We are or we are concerned about the doctrine of teaching … but we risk forgetting that our first task is to teach what it means to know Jesus Christ,” he said.
Prevost said the duration of a 2023 Vatican press conference: “Our work is to expand the store and let everyone know that they are welcome within the Church.”
He knows how to listen
The newly chosen Pope Leo XIV, Cardinal Robert Prevost of the United States appears on the balcony of the Basilica of San Pedro, in El Vaticano, May 8, 2025. Photo credit: Reuters
Prevost was born in 1955 and is a member of the Global Religious Order of Augustinia, which includes some 2,500 priests and brothers, operates in 50 countries and has a special approach in a community of community and equality among its members.
He has a degree from the University of Villanova in Philadelphia, a mastery of the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago and a doctorate in the Law of the Church of the Pontifical College of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome.
Prevost was for the first time to Peru as a missionary in 1985, returning to the United States in 1999 to assume a leadership role in its religious order.
Later he moved to Rome to serve six years as head of the Augustinians, visiting many of the communities of the order worldwide. It is known that he speaks English, Spanish, Italian, French and Portuguese.
Returning to Rome in 2023, Prevost generally did not participate in many of the social events that attract Vatican officials through the city.
Leon Angeles said he is a person with leadership skills, “but at the same time, he knows how to listen. He has that virtue.”
“The Cardinal has the courtesy of asking for an opinion, even if he is one of the simplest or most humble person,” he said. “He knows how to listen to everyone.”
Posted on May 8, 2025
