The 69-year-old US cardinal, Robert Francis Prevost, has been elected by the College of Cardinals' conclave as the new Pope. He has assumed the new name, Pope Leo XIV.
The former head of the Augustinian order has become the first-ever American to lead the Roman Catholic Church. Until Thursday evening, the notion of the fisherman’s ring being placed on a North American hand had long seemed improbable. The Vatican has traditionally resisted the idea of a US pope, wary of the optics of selecting a pontiff from a global superpower with such dominant cultural and secular influence.
That changed with a short conclave that chose a man who had been a cardinal for barely two years. His appointment is likely to be welcomed by progressive wings of the Church, though it may not sit well with some of his more conservative, Trump-aligned American peers in the College of Cardinals.
Born in Chicago on 14 September 1955, Prevost has never fit the mould of a typical US Catholic cleric—not least because he also holds Peruvian citizenship. After taking his solemn vows in 1981 and studying in Rome, he was sent on mission to Peru, where he spent many years as a judicial vicar and professor of canon, patristic, and moral law in Trujillo, the country’s third-largest city. He became bishop of Chiclayo, a city in northern Peru, in November 2014.
Those who knew him during his time in Peru, where the Church has long wrestled with tensions between liberation theologians and traditionalists, remember him as a calm and grounded leader. “No matter how many problems he has, he maintains good humour and joy,” said Rev Fidel Purisaca Vigil, communications director for his former diocese, to the Associated Press.
As Crux recently observed, Prevost developed a reputation as a diligent and “moderating influence” among Peru’s ideologically diverse bishops—a trait likely to serve him well in his papacy.
In January 2023, Pope Francis—himself no stranger to managing theological divides in 1970s Argentina—made Prevost a cardinal. Until Thursday, his most prominent Vatican roles included president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America and prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, overseeing the global selection of bishops.
Prevost’s deep ties to Latin America, combined with his Vatican experience, may have helped ease concerns among those hesitant about a US pope. His close association with Francis also positions him as a somewhat surprising, yet welcome, continuity candidate.
US president Donald Trump hailed the appointment, calling it “a great honor for our country.” But his relationship with Francis was famously strained. In 2016, Francis criticised Trump’s hardline immigration policies and plans to build a wall along the US-Mexico border, saying: “A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not of building bridges, is not Christian.”
Trump’s response was swift: “For a religious leader to question a person’s faith is disgraceful.”
As Pope Leo XIV stepped onto the loggia of St Peter’s Basilica in Vatican on Thursday, his first words were: “Peace be with you.” His message stressed peace, dialogue, and missionary evangelisation—apt themes for the former leader of a mendicant order grounded in poverty, service, and pastoral care.
