Get to know Pope Leo XIV..The first Pope From America

ope Leo XIV (born Robert Francis Prevost; September 14, 1955) is the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State. He was elected pope in the 2025 conclave on May 8, following the death and funeral of Pope Francis.

Born in Chicago, Prevost became a friar of the Order of Saint Augustine in 1977 and was ordained 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 citizen of the United States by birth and Peru by naturalization, Leo XIV is the first pope from the U.S. or North America, the first from Peru, and the second 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.