Robert Francis Prevost of the United States will be known as Pope Leo XIV. He is the 267th pope, succeeding Jorge Mario Bergoglio (Francis) who died on April 21. At least two-thirds of votes were needed from 133 cardinals to pick the new leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.
Prevost, 69, was born in Chicago, Illinois on Sept. 14, 1955. He entered the novitiate of the Order of Saint Augustine in 1977, in the province of Our Lady of Good Counsel in St. Louis, and made his solemn vows on Aug. 29, 1981.
He earned his Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from Villanova University in 1977; studied at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, graduating with a degree in Theology; and earned both licentiate and doctorate in Canon Law at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Rome.
Pope Francis appointed him a member of the Congregation for the Clergy in 2019 and a member of the Congregation for Bishops in 2020. In January 2023, he was named prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for Bishops. (via Vatican Media)
