Prevost Elected Pope Leo XIV, the 267th Pope and the First Born in the United States
At the Vatican, the conclave of 133 cardinal electors on May 8, 2025, elected a new pope: U.S.-born Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost was chosen as the 267th pope, taking the name Leo XIV and becoming the first pope born in the United States and the first Augustinian pope.
The conclave had begun on May 7. On the evening of May 8, white smoke rose from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel, and Cardinal Protodeacon Dominique Mamberti then stepped onto the central loggia of St. Peter's Basilica to proclaim in Latin that the Church had a pope. Leo XIV appeared on the loggia and began his first address with the greeting of peace, describing it as the peace of the risen Christ, a disarmed and disarming peace, humble and persevering, and saying that God loves everyone and that evil will not prevail. He thanked his predecessor, Pope Francis, and addressed the crowd in Italian and Spanish.
Prevost was born on September 14, 1955, in Chicago, Illinois, to Louis Marius Prevost, of French and Italian descent, and Mildred Martínez, of Spanish descent, and has two brothers. He studied at Villanova University in Pennsylvania, earning a degree in mathematics in 1977, entered the novitiate of the Order of Saint Augustine that year, made his solemn vows in 1981, was ordained a priest in Rome in 1982, and went on to earn a licentiate and a doctorate in canon law.
He then spent many years as a missionary in Peru, serving in Chulucanas in 1985 to 1986 and for eleven years in Trujillo from 1988 as prior of the community and formation director, as judicial vicar in the archdiocese and as a seminary professor, while also caring for a parish in a poor suburb of the city. In 1999 he was elected provincial prior of the Augustinians in Chicago and was later elected prior general of the worldwide order, confirmed in 2007 for a second term.
In 2014 Pope Francis appointed him apostolic administrator of the Peruvian Diocese of Chiclayo; he was ordained a bishop that year and was appointed Bishop of Chiclayo on September 26, 2015, serving until 2023, with the episcopal motto In illo uno unum, in the one Christ we are one. On January 30, 2023, Francis called him to Rome as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, promoting him to archbishop; he was created a cardinal on September 30 that year and was promoted to the order of bishops on February 6, 2025. During Francis's hospitalization, Prevost presided over the rosary for the pope's health in St. Peter's Square on March 3, 2025.
Leo XIV is the second pope from the Americas after Francis. Francis died on April 21, 2025, and the conclave that followed has now chosen his successor, closing that transition. (Source: Vatican News)
Related: Pope Francis Dies at 88
Related: Some 250,000 Bid Farewell to Francis at Funeral Mass; Pope Buried at St. Mary Major in Rome
Source: Vatican News
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：教宗良十四世2025年5月8日当选后在圣伯多禄大殿中央阳台首次公开露面。图：Edgar Beltrán / The Pillar，CC BY-SA 4.0，via Wikimedia Commons / Photo: Pope Leo XIV on the loggia of St. Peter's Basilica after his election on May 8, 2025. Photo: Edgar Beltrán / The Pillar, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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- 2025-05-08Prevost Elected Pope Leo XIV, the 267th Pope and the First Born in the United StatesThis story
