Pope Leo XIV

Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, O.S.A, was elected to the Chair of Peter on May 8, 2025, choosing the name “Leo XIV.”  He was born in Chicago on Sept 14, 1955, the feast of the Triumph of the Holy Cross to a mom of Spanish descent and a dad of French and Italian ancestry.  The youngest of three brothers, he attended his parish elementary school and served as an altar boy.  Discerning a call to priesthood and religious life, he enrolled in the Augustinian minor seminary and then in the Augustinian Villanova University just outside of Philadelphia.  He was sent by the order to study Canon Law in Rome where he was ordained a priest in 1982.  As a priest he spent 10 years as a missionary in Peru before being elected Provincial of the Midwest US providence of the Augustinians.  In 2001 he was elected super general of the order worldwide, serving in that capacity until he was named apostolic administrator of Chiclayo diocese in Peru where he served until he was called to Rome by Pope Francis to serve in the Dicastery of bishops in 2020.  Three years later he was named Prefect of that Dicastery and then created a Cardinal.

A dual citizen of the USA and Peru, Cardinal Prevost chose the name Leo XIV in honor of Leo XIII who, at the turn of the 20th century, had the courage to address the spiritual, intellectual, social and economic challenges of the day.  His motto, “in illo uno unum” means “in him [God] who is one, we are one” and is a quote from the Church Father St. Augustine. Biography by Dr. Italy