Robert Francis,
Cardinal Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV
Biography of Robert Francis Prevost, Pope Leo XIV
Prior to his election as Pope Leo XIV, Robert Francis,
Cardinal Prevost, was Prefect of the Dicastery for the Bishops. Here you can
find the biography of the 267th Bishop of Rome.
By Vatican News
The first Augustinian Pope, Leo XIV is the second Roman Pontiff
- after Pope Francis - from the Americas. Unlike Jorge Mario Bergoglio,
however, the 69-year-old Robert Francis Prevost is from the northern part of
the continent, though he spent many years as a missionary in Peru before being
elected head of the Augustinians for two consecutive terms.
First Augustinian Pope
The new Bishop of Rome was born on September 14, 1955, in
Chicago, Illinois, to Louis Marius Prevost, of French and Italian descent, and
Mildred Martínez, of Spanish descent. He has two brothers, Louis Martín and
John Joseph.
He spent his childhood and adolescence with his family and
studied first at the Minor Seminary of the Augustinian Fathers and then at
Villanova University in Pennsylvania, where in 1977 he earned a Degree in
Mathematics and also studied Philosophy.
On September 1 of the same year, Prevost entered the
novitiate of the Order of Saint Augustine (O.S.A.) in Saint Louis, in the
Province of Our Lady of Good Counsel of Chicago, and made his first profession
on September 2, 1978. On August 29, 1981, he made his solemn vows.
The future Pontiff received his theological education at the
Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. At the age of 27, he was sent by his
superiors to Rome to study Canon Law at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas
Aquinas (Angelicum).
In Rome, he was ordained a priest on June 19, 1982, at the
Augustinian College of Saint Monica by Archbishop Jean Jadot, then
Pro-President of the Pontifical Council for Non-Christians, now the Dicastery
for Interreligious Dialogue.
Prevost obtained his licentiate in 1984 and the following
year, while preparing his doctoral thesis, was sent to the Augustinian mission
in Chulucanas, Piura, Peru (1985–1986). In 1987, he defended his doctoral
thesis on "The Role of the Local Prior in the Order of Saint
Augustine" and was appointed vocation director and missions director of
the Augustinian Province of “Mother of Good Counsel” in Olympia Fields,
Illinois (USA).
Mission in Peru
The following year, he joined the mission in Trujillo, also
in Peru, as director of the joint formation project for Augustinian candidates
from the vicariates of Chulucanas, Iquitos, and Apurímac.
Over the course of eleven years, he served as prior of the
community (1988–1992), formation director (1988–1998), and instructor for
professed members (1992–1998), and in the Archdiocese of Trujillo as judicial
vicar (1989–1998) and professor of Canon Law, Patristics, and Moral Theology at
the Major Seminary “San Carlos y San Marcelo.” At the same time, he was also
entrusted with the pastoral care of Our Lady Mother of the Church, later
established as the parish of Saint Rita (1988–1999), in a poor suburb of the
city, and was parish administrator of Our Lady of Monserrat from 1992 to 1999.
In 1999, he was elected Provincial Prior of the Augustinian
Province of “Mother of Good Counsel” in Chicago, and two and a half years
later, the ordinary General Chapter of the Order of Saint Augustine, elected
him as Prior General, confirming him in 2007 for a second term.
In October 2013, he returned to his Augustinian Province in
Chicago, serving as director of formation at the Saint Augustine Convent, first
councilor, and provincial vicar—roles he held until Pope Francis appointed him
on November 3, 2014, as Apostolic Administrator of the Peruvian Diocese of
Chiclayo, elevating him to the episcopal dignity as Titular Bishop of
Sufar.
He entered the Diocese on November 7, in the presence of
Apostolic Nuncio James Patrick Green, who ordained him Bishop just over a month
later, on December 12, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, in the Cathedral of
Saint Mary.
His episcopal motto is “In Illo uno unum”—words pronounced
by Saint Augustine in a sermon on Psalm 127 to explain that “although we
Christians are many, in the one Christ we are one.”
Bishop of Chiclayo, Peru, from 2015 to 2023
On September 26, 2015, he was appointed Bishop of Chiclayo
by Pope Francis. In March 2018, he was elected second vice-president of the
Peruvian Episcopal Conference, where he also served as a member of the Economic
Council and president of the Commission for Culture and Education.
In 2019, Pope Francis appointed him a member of the
Congregation for the Clergy (July 13, 2019), and in 2020, a member of the
Congregation for Bishops (November 21). Meanwhile, on April 15, 2020, he was
also appointed Apostolic Administrator of the Peruvian Diocese of Callao.
Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops
On January 30, 2023, the Pope called him to Rome as Prefect
of the Dicastery for Bishops and President of the Pontifical Commission for
Latin America, promoting him to the rank of Archbishop.
Created Cardinal in 2024
Pope Francis created him Cardinal in the Consistory of
September 30 that year and assigned him the Diaconate of Saint Monica. He
officially took possession of it on January 28, 2024.
As head of the Dicastery, he participated in the Pope’s most
recent Apostolic Journeys and in both the first and second sessions of the 16th
Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on synodality, held in Rome
from October 4 to 29, 2023, and from October 2 to 27, 2024, respectively.
Meanwhile, on October 4, 2023, Pope Francis appointed him as
a member of the Dicasteries for Evangelization (Section for First
Evangelization and New Particular Churches), for the Doctrine of the Faith, for
the Eastern Churches, for the Clergy, for Institutes of Consecrated Life and
Societies of Apostolic Life, for Culture and Education, for Legislative Texts,
and of the Pontifical Commission for the Vatican City State.
Finally, on February 6 of this year, the Argentine Pope
promoted him to the Order of Bishops, granting him the title of the
Suburbicarian Church of Albano.
Three days later, on February 9, he celebrated the Mass
presided over by Pope Francis in St. Peter's Square for the Jubilee
of the Armed Forces, the second major event of the Holy Year of Hope.
During the most recent hospitalization of his predecessor at
the “Gemelli” hospital Prevost presided over the Rosary for Pope
Francis’s health in Saint Peter’s Square on March 3.
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