Robert Cardinal Prevost Elected as Pope Leo XIV: Five Things You Should Know
Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost has been elected the 267th pope of the Catholic Church, taking the name Leo XIV, on the second day of voting by the College of Cardinals.
The Election
The election of the 69-year-old Pope Leo came as a shock to many, defying conventional wisdom that an American had almost no chance of being elected.
In his first greeting to the world, Pope Leo said, “Peace be with you all!”
Pope Leo garnered at least 89 votes from his fellow cardinals during the conclave, earning the two-thirds majority required to succeed Pope Francis as the bishop of Rome.
The last pope to take the name of Leo – Leo XIII – died in 1903.
His Background
The 69-year-old Pope Leo was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Louis Marius Prevost and Mildred Martínez. His father served in the U.S. Navy and fought during World War II. His mother was a librarian. Both parents are deceased. He has two brothers and, it was reported, is a fan of the Chicago Cubs. But according to his brother, he actually roots for the White Sox.
Pope Leo graduated from Villanova University, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics. He is fluent in English, Spanish, Italian, French and Portuguese.
Pope Leo joined the Order of St. Augustine in September 1977, earning a Master of Divinity degree from the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago.
He was ordained a priest for the Augustinians on June 19, 1982. He earned a Licentiate of Canon Law in 1984 and a Doctor of Canon Law in 1987 from the Pontifical College of St. Thomas Aquinas (the Angelicum) in Rome.
Pope Leo then served as a missionary in Peru and led the Augustinian seminary in Trujillo. He was appointed by Pope Francis as the bishop of the Diocese of Chiclayo, Peru in 2015, and made a cardinal in 2023.
He is the first American and Peruvian pope.
On The Sanctity of Life
There is sparse information about Pope Leo’s stance on many of our culture’s most pressing cultural issues. But he tweeted his support for the March for Life, held in March 2015 in Chiclayo, Peru.
“March for Life in Chiclayo. Let’s defend human life at all times!” he wrote.
He was also the co-founder of the campus pro-life organization “Villanovans for Life” – the oldest college pro-life club in the United States.
Speaking to the Peruvian bishops in 2020, Pope Leo addressed the need to uphold the dignity of the elderly:
On Sexual Ethics
The New York Times reported that in 2012, Pope Leo lamented Western news media and popular culture which create “sympathy for beliefs and practices that are at odds with the gospel,” citing the “homosexual lifestyle” and “alternative families comprised of same-sex partners and their adopted children.”
On Gender
The New York Times notes that when Pope Leo served as a bishop in Chiclayo, he objected to a government plan to add teachings on “gender identity” in schools.
“The promotion of gender ideology is confusing, because it seeks to create genders that don’t exist,” he told local media at the time.
As the new leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, Pope Leo XIV will have a massive megaphone with which to speak into the most pressing moral and cultural problems the world faces.
We pray that he will speak Christian truths clearly and confidently, especially on the issues – like life, gender ideology, homosexuality, divorce and remarriage, IVF and contraception – that most directly impact the family.
Related articles and resources:
Why Evangelicals Should Care About the Next Pope
The Consequential, Complex and Confounding Legacy of Pope Francis
Pope Francis Says All Religions Lead to God; A Strong Bishop Corrects Him
Photo from Getty Images.
