Pope Leo XIV[a] (born Robert Francis Prevost;[b] 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, 2025, following the death of Pope Francis.Born in Chicago, United States, Prevost joined the Order of Saint Augustine as a young man, and was ordained 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 (2015–2023). 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 dual citizen of the United States and Peru, Leo is the first pope born in the United States and the first to hold either U.S. or Peruvian citizenship. He is also the first pope from the Order of Saint Augustine.[cRobert Francis Prevost was born on September 14, 1955, at Mercy Hospital in Chicago, Illinois.[4][5][6] His mother, Mildred (née Martínez) Prevost, a native of the 7th Ward of New Orleans, graduated from DePaul University with a bachelor's degree in library science in 1947,[7][8] while his father, Louis Marius Prevost, was a United States Navy veteran of World War II—first by commanding an infantry landing craft in the Normandy landings and later participating in Operation Dragoon in southern France—and later became superintendent of Brookwood School District 167 in Glenwood, Illinois.[9][10][11] Prevost has two older brothers, Louis and John.[4]
Raised in Dolton, Illinois, a suburb bordering Chicago's far South Side, Prevost grew up in the parish of St. Mary of the Assumption, where he went to school, sang in the choir, and served as an altar boy.[4][12][d] Known as "Bob" or "Rob" in childhood and to friends,[4][14][15] he completed secondary education at St. Augustine Seminary High School, a minor seminary in Holland, Michigan, in 1973,[16] earning a Letter of Commendation for academic excellence, consistently appearing on the honor roll, and serving as yearbook editor-in-chief, secretary of the student council, and a member of the National Honor Society.[17][18] He also participated in speech and debate.[19]
Prevost earned a Bachelor of Science (BS) degree in mathematics from Villanova University, an Augustinian college, in 1977.[20][21] He obtained a Master of Divinity (MDiv) from Catholic Theological Union in Chicago in 1982, also serving as a physics and math teacher at St. Rita of Cascia High School in Chicago during his studies.[4][22] He earned a Licentiate of Canon Law in 1984, followed by a Doctor of Canon Law degree in 1987 from the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Rome.[20] His doctoral thesis was titled "The office and authority of the local prior in the Order of Saint Augustine".[20] Villanova University awarded him an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree in 2014
