After less than 24 hours of seclusion in the Vatican, the cardinals finished the 2025 papclave Choice of a new Pontiff. The chosen man, Cardinal Robert PrevostIt will be known as Pope Leo XIV, the first Pope in the United States.
This is what he should know about him.
Where is Pope Leo XIV?
Papa Leo XIV Robert Francis Prevost was born In Chicago, IllinoisIn 1955. He is the first American Pope in the history of the Church, and is also a citizen or Peru, where he worked for many years.
CBS News Chicago reports Hello, it grew in the south of Dolton’s suburbs and has two brothers. A woman who knew him in childhood says that the Premost family was very active in her church.
“His family was very, very devout Catholics. I will say that. Mom and dad were,” Linda Jorsch told the station. “The Church never lost themselves, and they were very active within our parish. His mother was a member of the Altar & Rosary society. They were readers in their church, a very active and very devout family.”
Hello graduated from University of Villanova in Pennsylvania With a title in Mathematics, he studied theology at the Catholic Theological Union of Chicago, where he obtained a mastery of divinity.
When he was 27, he was sent to Rome to study, and was ordered as a priest in 1982. He then won a doctorate in the Canon Law of the Pontifical College of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome.
“My experience in Cardinal Prevost was that it is not a showBoat.” A seminar classmate, Father Mark R. Francis, CSV, provincial of the viatorians in the United States, told CBS News Chicago. “It is very quiet, but extremely intelligent and extremely compassionate.”
Pope Leo XIV has voted in the US elections
The new Pope is registered to vote in the suburbs of Chicago and the voting records Obeyed by CBS News Show that he has voted in several general elections, together with democratic and republican primaries.
He voted in the general elections of 2024, as well as in the cycles of 2012, 2008, 2004 and 2000, according to the records. He also issued votes in the 2016 and 2012 Republican presidential primaries, and voted in the 2008 and 2010 democratic primaries.
What is the background of Pope Leo XIV in the Church?
After his ordination, Prevost to work as a missionary Peru. He returned to the United States for a few years and then returned to Peru, where he directed an Augustinian seminar in Trujillo.
In 2014, he was appointed Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Chiclayo in Peru by Pope Francis, according to the Vatican. A year later, he became bishop.
Pope Francis made him a cardinal in 2023.
Before becoming Pope, Prevost, who is 69 years old, was the head of the church dicastery for bishops, which means that he supervised the selection of new bishops.
In general, he is considered a centrist, but in many social issues that he looks as progressive, hugging a marginalized group as Francis, who defended migrants and the poor. But Prevost opposes ordering women as a deacon, for example, so it is seen as conservative in the church doctrine.
“Hi, he maintained a profile under the most controversial, nerual, sensitive and controversial problems” that the church faced, said CBS Papal News Francis X. Rocca.
Papa Leo XIV congratulated by Presidents, Mayor of Chicago
President Trump He published a message on social networks congratulating the first Pope born in the United States.
“Congritions to Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, who has just appointed Pope. It is an honor to realize that he is the first American Pope. What emotion and what great honor for our country. I hope to meet!” Hey wrote.
Former President Joe Biden, who is Catholic, tweeted: “Habemus Papam – May God bless Pope Leo XIV or Illinois. Jill and I congratulate him and wish him success.”
Former President Barack Obama also shared his best wishes for “a Chicago partner.” “Michelle and I send our congregulations to a Chicago partner, his holiness, Pope Leo XIV. This is a historic day for the United States, and we will pray for him when he begins the sacred work of leading the Catholic Church and establishing an ANSY”, regarding such manyple. “
In Prevost’s hometown, ChicagoMany people celebrated their choice, Withor Brandon Johnson tweeting: “Everything Dope, including the Pope, comes from Chicago!”
“Congritions to the first American Pope Leo XIV! We hope to welcome his son back home,” Johnson wrote.
Why did Pope Leo XIV choose his name?
The first act of a new Pope after being chosen is to choose a new name. This is to mean that it became a pontiff is similar to a second birth, said the Vatican.
Cardinal Prevost chose the name papal leoOne of the most popular options in history, which has been used by 13 previous potatoes. The most recent, Pope Leo XIII, served from 1878 to 1903.
“The name Leo returns to Pope Leo the Great,” said Candida Moss, CBS News. Also known as Pope Leo I, his papacy was 440 to 461 and included a famous meeting with Attila, where Leo deterred him from attacking Rome.
“What does this mean for our new Pope? Well, it could mean that Hey will face oppressive political forces in the world,” Moss said.
He pointed out that Leo I was also known as “a great intellectual and theological reformer.”
The name chosen by a new Pope often reflects attributes they hope to embody in his papacy.
“It will indicate a certain spirit and director and vision of the new Pope,” said Dennis Doyle, theologian and professor of religious studies at Dayton University.
Pope Francis, for example, was the first Pope in history to take that name, a wink to San Francisco de Asís. In the Catholic tradition, San Francisco de Asís, a mystical vision of Jesus, who told him to rebuild his church. He also resigned from his wealth and founded the Franciscan Order of the Frailes in 1290.
Aaron Navarro, Joe Walsh, Nicole Brown Chau and
Contributed to this report.
