The primary American pope in historical past has been named as Robert Francis Prevost in a landmark conclusion to the Conclave on Thursday.
Prevost, 69, was born in Chicago, Illinois and commenced finding out to change into a priest with the Catholic Church on the age of 18, earlier than happening to check arithmetic at Villanova College in Pennsylvania 4 years later.
He spent a lot of his youth in South America and likewise holds Peruvian citizenship, and was mentioned to have been seen because the ‘least American of the People’ who have been within the operating on the Conclave.
A preferred determine within the church who served as the top of Pope Francis’ vetting course of for brand new bishop nominations, he has been notably quiet about his views on subjects similar to girls within the clergy and identical intercourse unions.
He waded into gender ideology whereas serving as a bishop in Chiclayo, Peru in 2012, saying that ‘the promotion of gender ideology is complicated, as a result of it seeks to create genders that do not exist.’
Following his commencement in Pennsylvania, Prevost first went to Peru in 1985 as a missionary earlier than changing into the Roman Catholic Diocese for the Chulucanas area that very same yr.
Prevost – also referred to as Father Bob – returned to work as a pastor in Chicago in 1987 for one yr earlier than changing into the top of the Augustinian seminary in Trujillo, Peru – a task he saved for a decade.
In 1998, he was elected as the top of the Augustinian Province of Chicago, making him one of many main spiritual figures in the US.
The person he succeeded to steer the Vatican, Pope Francis, introduced Prevost to Italy in 2023 and handed him a distinguished publish heading into the Conclave, a course of the place cardinals vote in secret to elect the brand new Pope that was watched in anticipation by tens of millions.
Robert Francis Prevost, 69, was named as the primary American pope in historical past on Thursday
Prevost was born in Chicago, Illinois and commenced finding out to change into a priest with the Catholic Church aged 18, earlier than happening to check arithmetic at Villanova College in Pennsylvania 4 years later
Though he makes historical past as the primary American pope, the Chicago-born spiritual chief has not been shy about his disapproval of President Donald Trump up to now.
He has taken so social media various occasions to criticize the Trump administration’s strikes on immigration repeatedly and expressed help for progressive causes.
‘Do you not see the struggling? Is your conscience not disturbed? How will you keep quiet?’ he mentioned in a single tweet.
The brand new Pope additionally shared a number of articles that deal with JD Vance’s stance on immigration. One among them is titled: ‘JD Vance is flawed: Jesus does not ask us to rank our love for others.’
Regardless of holding a distinguished publish on the Vatican, Prevost was not among the many bookies’ favorites heading into the Conclave.
This was primarily as a result of he’s an American, with no US citizen ever holding the place of Pope earlier than in historical past.
Prevost emerged victorious on the Conclave on Thursday, a course of the place cardinals vote in secret to elect the brand new pope that was watched in anticipation by tens of millions
Prevost seen in his first deal with to the world after being named as the brand new pope
Prevost can also be a Peruvian citizen, and he lived within the South American nation for a few years as a missionary after which archbishop.
Whereas working beneath Francis, he presided over probably the most revolutionary reforms Francis made, when he added three girls to the voting bloc that decides which bishop nominations to ahead to the Pope.
In early 2025, Francis once more confirmed his esteem by appointing Prevost to probably the most senior rank of cardinals, suggesting he would at the least be Francis’ selection in any future conclave.
The Rev. Fidel Purisaca Vigil, the communications director for Prevost’s previous diocese in Chiclayo the place he beforehand served, remembered Prevost as a heat and sort man who ate breakfast together with his employees every day.
‘Regardless of what number of issues he has, he maintains good humor and pleasure,’ he advised the Related Press.
James Martin, a Jesuit priest who can also be the editor-at-large of America Journal, mentioned on X after Prevost was introduced as the brand new pope that he had equally pleased recollections of the clergyman.
‘I do know Pope Leo XIV to be a sort, open, humble, modest, decisive, hard-working, easy, reliable, and down-to-earth man. A superb selection. Might God bless him,’ he mentioned in a publish.
Prevost at a mass for Pope Francis on April 30 following his predecessor’s dying final month
Prevost enters the papacy not with out some scandal in his previous, and a few have already pointed to an incident over twenty years in the past when he turned embroiled within the Catholic Church’s little one abuse controversy.
In 2000, he got here beneath scrutiny for permitting Father James Ray, an Augustinian priest who had been suspended from the ministry 9 years earlier than as a result of allegations of sexual abuse of minors, to reside at his St John Stone Friary in Chicago.
He would go on to take a public stance in opposition to the best way that the Catholic Church dealt with the pedophilia scandal, telling La Republica in 2019 that it should transfer away from its tradition of cover-ups.
‘We reject the cover-up and secrecy, that does a variety of injury, as a result of we’ve to assist the individuals who have suffered from the unhealthy act,’ he mentioned.
He urged victims to come back ahead, including: ‘Many occasions it was shut up and do not speak, you’ll be able to’t ask for that.
‘On behalf of the Church we wish to inform people who if there was any offense, in the event that they suffered or are victims of the unhealthy actions of a priest to come back and denounce it, to behave for the nice of the Church, of the particular person and the neighborhood.’
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