Pope Leo XIV
Based on Wikipedia: Pope Leo XIV
When the cardinals entered the conclave in 2025, few expected Robert Francis Prevost to emerge as Pope. The man from Chicago's South Side had spent decades serving the Church in Rome and Peru, quietly building a reputation as a reform-minded prelate who emphasized synodality and engagement with modern challenges. Yet when white smoke rose from St. Peter's Basilica on that March morning, signaling his election, the world suddenly had its first American Pope—and with him came a new name for an old problem: Leo XIV.
The prospect of an American pope had long seemed unrealistic to Vatican insiders. The United States was a superpower; the papacy carried global influence. The combination struck observers as either ideal or impossible. But Prevost, then seventy years old, took his name not from chance but from history—he chose Leo XIV in deliberate dialogue with Pope Leo XIII, who developed modern Catholic social teaching amid the tumult of the Second Industrial Revolution. Like his namesake, this new pope would confront a new industrial revolution, artificial intelligence, and questions of workers' rights in a globalized economy.
A South Side Childhood
Robert Francis Prevost was born on September 14, 1955, at Mercy Hospital in Chicago's Bronzeville neighborhood—a part of the city's historically Black South Side. The hospital no longer exists, but the neighborhood shaped his earliest years: he grew up in nearby Dolton, Illinois, a suburb that would later purchase his childhood home after he became Pope.
His upbringing was steeped in Catholic faith and intellectual rigor. His father, Louis Marius Prevost, came from a Chicago family rooted in Hyde Park—his own parents were immigrants from Italy and France. Louis served as a United States Navy veteran of World War II, commanding an infantry landing craft in the Normandy landings and later participating in Operation Dragoon in southern France. After the war, he became an educator, eventually serving as superintendent of Brookwood School District in Glenwood, Illinois.
His mother, Mildred Agnes Prevost (née Martínez), was also born in Chicago, into a mixed-race Black Creole family from Louisiana. She worked as an educator and librarian, including at Mendel Catholic High School. Together, Louis and Mildred raised three sons: Louis Martín, John Joseph, and Robert.
Their faith defined the household. Louis served as a catechist—a teacher of the faith—while Mildred was an active member of the Rosary and Altar Society, sang in the church choir, and provided services for St. Mary of the Assumption parish. Each morning at 6:30, she called her sons to go to Mass before school, telling them that Jesus "is your best friend" and Mass "a way to find that friend."
"My parents prayed the rosary together their whole lives everyday," Prevost would later recall. "What influenced me spiritually was my parents' faith, prayer life and Marian devotions." He attended the parish Catholic school, sang in the choir, and served as an altar boy—his childhood home purchased by the Village of Dolton after his election as Pope became public knowledge.
Formation and Vocation
From a young age, Prevost aspired to the priesthood. He would play-act the Mass at home with his brothers, and in eighth grade, following visits from priests of multiple religious orders to the family home, he decided to enter the Augustinian order. He later noted that the Salesians of Don Bosco "came in second place"—the Augustinians won his vocational commitment.
From 1969 to 1973, Prevost attended St. Augustine Seminary High School near Saugatuck, Michigan—a minor seminary preparing young men for priesthood. His brother John remembered that from the end of eighth grade on, and especially after joining the Order of Saint Augustine, Prevost was hardly at home or with family until their later adulthood when leave allowed them to reconnect.
At the seminary, he earned a letter of commendation for academic excellence, consistently appeared on the honor roll, served as yearbook editor-in-chief, and was secretary of the student council and a member of the National Honor Society. He captained the bowling team and headed the speech and debate team, competing in Congressional Debate. Out of several dozen students who entered the school with him, Prevost was one of only thirteen to graduate.
In 1973, he planned to attend Tolentine College, an Augustinian seminary in Olympia Fields, Illinois, as part of the order's pre-novitiate program—but it closed that same year. He promptly enrolled instead at Villanova University, an Augustinian college near Philadelphia, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics in 1977.
At Villanova, Prevost took elective courses in Hebrew and Latin, read the writings of Saint Augustine, and discussed the work of theologian Karl Rahner with other students. He was a founding member of Villanovans For Life, the oldest collegiate pro-life club in the United States. He lived in the Augustinian friary and was remembered as "particularly committed to missionary work" and "the most community minded" among the student body.
While studying at Villanova, he also worked as a cemetery groundskeeper at Saint Denis Catholic Church in Havertown, Pennsylvania.
Becoming a Friar
On September 1, 1977, Prevost entered the Order of Saint Augustine's novitiate in the Province of Our Mother of Good Counsel, residing for one year at Immaculate Conception Church in the Gate District of St. Louis, Missouri. In the summer of 1978, he spent three months in Clinical Pastoral Education at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis.
He took his first vows on September 2, 1978, and his solemn vows on August 29, 1981. He returned to his father's native Hyde Park to obtain a Master of Divinity from Catholic Theological Union in 1982 and taught physics and math at St. Rita of Cascia High School in the Wrightwood neighborhood of Chicago during his studies.
As his spiritual director—a guide to the Christian life—he chose Sister Lyn Osiek, RSCJ, a religious sister who supervised his theological reflection class. She described him as "calm and steady... a person who was at peace with himself."
On September 10, 1981, Prevost was ordained as a priest.
A Scholar and Shepherd
After ordination, Prevost earned his Doctor of Canon Law degree in 1987 from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome—commonly known as the Angelicum. This doctoral program, rigorous in its canonical and theological training, prepared him for leadership roles within the Church.
His service included extensive missionary work in Peru during the 1980s and 1990s, where he worked as a parish pastor, diocesan official, seminary teacher, and administrator. He was elected prior general of the Order of Saint Augustine and based in Rome from 2001 to 2013, traveling extensively throughout the order's many provinces and missions around the world.
In 2015, he returned to Peru as Bishop of Chiclayo, serving until 2023. Then, Pope Francis appointed him prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops in Rome and president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America—powerful positions that gave him influence over appointments throughout the Catholic world.
Upon his return to Rome in 2023, Prevost was made a cardinal by Pope Francis. As Cardinal, he emphasized synodality, missionary dialogue, and engagement with social and technological challenges. He addressed issues such as climate change, global migration, church governance, and human rights—and expressed alignment with the reforms of the Second Vatican Council and the direction set for the Church by Francis.
The Election
Prevost's election in the 2025 conclave was unexpected by observers; he was considered a dark horse candidate. Vatican insiders believed the prospect of a Pope from the United States to be unrealistic given America's status as a global superpower—and yet, when the cardinals gathered, Prevost emerged.
He chose his papal name in honor of Pope Leo XIII, who developed modern Catholic social teaching amid the tumult of the Second Industrial Revolution—and as both an echo and response to the challenges of a new industrial revolution and artificial intelligence. The choice was deliberate: like Leo XIII, this new Pope would address workers' rights, fairness, and technological disruption.
As Pope, he has consistently opposed armed conflict and nationalism while advocating for the rights of migrants. He has introduced warnings about artificial intelligence technology and affirmed the teachings of his predecessors, including social teachings and the climate policy of Pope Francis. He has pointed to the Second Vatican Council as the "guiding star" of the Church—reaffirming the council's reforms while pushing forward on issues the council could not anticipate.
The man from Chicago's South Side now sits in St. Peter's Chair, confronting a Church and world very different from the one his parents raised him in—but built, perhaps, on the same faith they taught him.