| Pope Leo XIV | |
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| Papacy Began: 8 May 2025
Predecessor: Pope Francis | |
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| Born: 14 September 1955, as Robert Francis Prevost
Nationality: American and Peruvian Motto: In Illo uno unum | |
| Reference style: His Holiness
In person: Your Holiness In religion: Holy Father | |
His Holiness Pope Leo XIV (born Robert Francis Prevost; September 14, 1955) is 267th current Pope of the Catholic Church since May 8, 2025. He served with the Order of Saint Augustine in Chicago and Peru. He also held a Peruvian passport due his service there.[1] He is the first American to be selected as pope, after being a cardinal for less than two years. On June 11, he was photographed wearing a Chicago White Sox baseball cap at the Vatican.[2]
His selection appeared to result from an aggressive, behind-the-scenes lobbying campaign that included marketing him to many cardinals who had never even heard of him:
| “ | "I was surprised at how many of my colleagues asked me ... 'do you know this Roberto Prevost?'" Timothy Dolan, the Archbishop of New York, said at a press conference alongside fellow North American cardinals.
The truth was Dolan knew very little about Prevost, who spent most of his adult life away from the U.S. — much of it as a missionary and later bishop in Peru, where he gained dual citizenship.[3] |
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Early life and education
Robert Francis Prevost was born on September 14, 1955, at Mercy Hospital in the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, to Mildred (née Martínez) Prevost, a librarian, and Louis Marius Prevost, a United States Navy veteran of World War II and superintendent of Brookwood School District 167 in Glenwood, Illinois.
In 1982, Robert Prevost earned his Master's in Divinity from liberal Catholic Theological Union Chicago, a stronghold of the social justice movement.
His father was of Italian and French descent. It is reported that his mother was the daughter of Louisiana Creole parents, Joseph Martínez from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and Louise Baquié from New Orleans, who were of African, French, and Spanish descent.