In the frenzied days leading up to the papal conclave following Pope Francis’s passing on April 21, speculation was rampant: would the next pope be from Africa, perhaps the first Black Pope in modern history? Or would Latin America once again lead the Church? Papal predictions are famously unreliable, and once again, the white smoke proved the pundits wrong.Instead of an African or Asian cardinal, the Church chose a relatively unknown Augustinian from Chicago with deep missionary roots in Peru. When Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost stepped onto the loggia overlooking St. Peter’s Square as Pope Leo XIV, he immediately set a different tone, speaking not in English, his native tongue, but in Spanish and Italian. This wasn’t just a linguistic flourish. It was a statement. Fluent in English, Spanish, Italian, French, and Portuguese — and proficient in Latin and German —Leo XIV is among the most linguistically adept popes in Church history. Yet his decision to forgo English in his first appearance spoke volumes: a signal of solidarity with Latin America and a style rooted more in communion than communication.Born in 1955 to a French-Italian father and Spanish-American mother, Robert Francis Prevost grew up in Chicago’s multicultural neighbourhoods. He is the first pope from the US, and the second from the Americas —after Pope Francis of Argentina — a milestone for a Church that has grown rapidly in the Western Hemisphere. After studying mathematics and philosophy at Villanova University, he entered the Augustinian order in 1977 and later earned a doctorate in Canon Law from the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Rome.Ordained in 1982, he was soon sent to Peru, where he lived out a mission rather than a career. In Trujillo, he became not just a priest but a builder of communities. For over a decade, he led formation for Augustinian candidates, served as judicial vicar, taught theology, and ministered in poor and neglected neighborhoods. That immersion gave him a distinctly missionary spirituality — grounded in humility, solidarity, and proximity.He was later called back to leadership: first as Provincial of the Augustinians in Chicago, then as Prior General of the global order — elected to a rare second term. Pope Francis took notice. In 2014, Prevost was appointed Apostolic Administrator of Chiclayo and soon became its bishop. By 2023, he led the powerful Dicastery for Bishops in Rome.
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