Pope Leo XIV

Pope Leo XIV; }} (born Robert Francis Prevost, . In Piedmontese, means 'priest'.}} September 14, 1955) is the head of the Catholic Church, and sovereign of the Vatican City State. He was elected in the 2025 papal conclave to succeed Pope Francis.

Born in Chicago, Illinois, United States, and raised in a town near the city's South Side, Prevost became a friar of the Order of Saint Augustine in 1977 and was ordained as a priest in 1982. His service has included extensive missionary work in Peru from 1985 to 1986 and from 1988 to 1998, where he variously served as a parish pastor, diocesan official, seminary teacher, and administrator. Elected prior general of the Order of Saint Augustine from 2001 to 2013, he later returned to Peru as Bishop of Chiclayo from 2015 to 2023. In 2023, Pope Francis appointed him prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, and made him a cardinal the same year.

A United States citizen by birth, Leo XIV is the first pope to have been born in North America, the first to also hold Peruvian citizenship (having been naturalized in 2015), and the second pope from the Americas (after Francis). He is the first pope from the Order of Saint Augustine. His papal name was inspired by Pope Leo XIII, who developed Catholic social teaching. As a cardinal, he emphasized synodality, missionary dialogue, and engagement with social and technological challenges. He also engaged with issues such as climate change, global migration, church governance, and human rights, and he expressed alignment with the reforms of the Second Vatican Council. Provided by Wikipedia