Biography
Pope Leo XIV (United States, 1955), was born in Chicago. On January 30, 2023, Pope Francis appointed him Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and President of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America. He was created and proclaimed Cardinal by Pope Francis on September 30, 2023. On May 8, 2025, he was elected the 267th Roman Pontiff.
Pope Leo XIV, Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, O.S.A., Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and Bishop Emeritus of Chiclayo, was born on September 14, 1955, in Chicago, Illinois, USA.
In 1977, he entered the novitiate of the Order of Saint Augustine (O.S.A.) in the Province of Our Lady of Good Counsel in St. Louis. He made his solemn profession on August 29, 1981. He studied at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, where he obtained a degree in theology.
At age 27, the Order sent him to Rome to study Canon Law at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum). He was ordained a priest on June 19, 1982. He obtained his licentiate in 1984 and was then sent to serve in the mission of Chulucanas, Piura, Peru (1985–1986).
In 1987, he earned his doctorate with the thesis: “The Role of the Local Prior in the Order of Saint Augustine.” That same year, he was elected Vocation Director and Missions Director of the Augustinian Province "Mother of Good Counsel" in Olympia Fields, Illinois, USA.
In 1988, he was sent to the Trujillo mission as director of the joint formation project for Augustinian aspirants in the vicariates of Chulucanas, Iquitos, and Apurímac. There, he served as Prior of the community (1988–1992), Formation Director (1988–1998), and Formator of Professed Friars (1992–1998). In the Archdiocese of Trujillo, he was Judicial Vicar (1989–1998) and Professor of Canon Law, Patristics, and Moral Theology at the Major Seminary “San Carlos y San Marcelo.”
In 1999, he was elected Prior Provincial of the “Mother of Good Counsel” Province in Chicago. Two and a half years later, the Ordinary General Chapter elected him Prior General, a role he was re-elected to during the 2007 Chapter.
In October 2013, he returned to his province in Chicago as Formator of Professed Friars and Provincial Vicar, roles he held until November 3, 2014, when Pope Francis appointed him Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Chiclayo, Peru, elevating him to the episcopate and assigning him the titular see of Sufar.
On November 7, he took canonical possession of the diocese in the presence of Apostolic Nuncio James Patrick Green; he was consecrated bishop on December 12, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, in the cathedral of his diocese. His episcopal motto was “In Illo uno unum” (“In that One, we are one”), taken from Saint Augustine.
He served as Bishop of Chiclayo from November 26, 2015. In March 2018, he was elected Second Vice President of the Peruvian Episcopal Conference. Pope Francis appointed him a member of the Congregation for the Clergy in 2019 and of the Congregation for Bishops in 2020.
On April 15, 2020, the Pope appointed him Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Callao.
On January 30, 2023, Pope Francis appointed him Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and President of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.
He was created and proclaimed Cardinal by Pope Francis in the Consistory of September 30, 2023, with the Diaconia of Saint Monica.
He has been a member of the Dicasteries for: Evangelization (Section for First Evangelization and New Particular Churches), the Doctrine of the Faith, Eastern Churches, the Clergy, Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, Culture and Education, Legislative Texts; and the Pontifical Commission for the Vatican City State.
Pope Leo XIV is the 267th Roman Pontiff of the Catholic Church.