Leo XIV
Robert Francis Prevost, an Augustinian friar born in Chicago, missionary and bishop in Peru and then prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops. He was elected pope on 8 May 2025; the Holy See calls him the first pope from the United States.
Robert Francis Prevost was born in Chicago on 14 September 1955 (Holy See, Biography of Pope Leo XIV). He entered the Order of Saint Augustine in 1977, was ordained a priest in 1982 and took a doctorate in canon law in Rome (Holy See, Biography of Pope Leo XIV). He worked in the order’s missions in Peru from 1985, was prior general of the Augustinians from 2001 to 2013, and returned to Peru in 2014 to the diocese of Chiclayo, whose bishop he became in 2015 (Holy See, Biography of Pope Leo XIV). Pope Francis made him prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and a cardinal in 2023 (Holy See, Biography of Pope Leo XIV). The cardinals elected him pope on 8 May 2025, and the Holy See’s biography calls him the first pope from the United States of America and the first Augustinian pope (Holy See, Biography of Pope Leo XIV); see Leo XIV, the First Pope from the United States.
He told the cardinals that he took the name Leo mainly because of Leo XIII’s teaching on the social question (Leo XIV, Address to the College of Cardinals (10 May 2025)). In November 2025 he prayed at İznik with Patriarch Bartholomew I on the anniversary of the Council of Nicaea (Leo XIV, Address at İznik (28 November 2025)) and signed a joint declaration with him the next day (Joint Declaration of Leo XIV and Bartholomew I (2025) bulletin); see the Churches Mark 1,700 Years since Nicaea.
In the timeline
- 8 May 2025, firm dateLeo XIV, the First Pope from the United States
After the death of Pope Francis on Easter Monday 2025 the cardinals elect Robert Francis Prevost, an Augustinian friar born in Chicago who had been a missionary and bishop in Peru. He takes the name Leo XIV.
- 28 November 2025, firm dateThe Churches Mark 1,700 Years since Nicaea
Pope Leo XIV, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and leaders of other churches pray together at İznik, the ancient Nicaea, and profess the creed. The next day pope and patriarch sign a declaration naming the faith of Nicaea as what binds Christians together.