Robert Prevost Becomes Leo XIV, the First Pope from the United States

On May 8, 2025, white smoke rose from the Sistine Chapel on the second day of the papal conclave, signaling the election of Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost as the leader of the Roman Catholic Church. The cardinal protodeacon announced his choice to the crowds in Saint Peter's Square, where the newly chosen pontiff appeared in the traditional stole and mozzetta to take the name Leo XIV. Born in Chicago in 1955, he became the first person from the United States and North America to ascend to the papacy. Having obtained Peruvian citizenship a decade earlier, he was also the second consecutive pope holding citizenship in a Latin American nation, following the pontificate of Pope Francis.

Prevost's path to the papacy was rooted in decades of pastoral, educational, and missionary service. He entered the novitiate of the Order of Saint Augustine in 1977, took solemn vows in 1981, and received priestly ordination in Rome the following year. After earning a doctorate in canon law from the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, he dedicated much of his career to Peru. Beginning in 1985, he assisted local prelacies, directed seminary education in Trujillo, acted as an ecclesiastical judge, and served parish communities. During his years in South America, he achieved fluency in Spanish and engaged closely with local pastoral challenges. In 1999 he returned to the United States after being elected prior provincial of the Augustinians' Chicago-based province.