Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost has been chosen as the new Pope Leo XIV

The 69-year-old American was announced as the new Pontiff by His Reverend Eminence Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, Dean of the College of Cardinals, shortly after 6pm Irish-time just over an hour after white smoke billowing from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel confirmed the Cardinal electors had come to a positive decision.

Pope Leo XIV, former Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, Archbishop-Bishop emeritus of Chiclayo in Peru, was born on September 14, 1955 in Chicago.

In 1977 he entered the novitiate of the Order of Saint Augustine (O.S.A.) in the province of Our Lady of Good Counsel, in Saint Louis.

On August 29, 1981 he gave his solemn vows.

He studied at the Catholic Theological Union of Chicago, receiving a diploma in theology.

Aged 27 he was sent by the Order to Rome to study canon law at the Pontifical Saint Thomas Aquinas University (Angelicum).

He received priestly ordination on June 19, 1982. He received his licentiate in 1984, and was then sent to work in the mission of Chulucanas, in Piura, Peru (1985-1986).

In 1987 he was awarded a doctorate with the thesis: “The role of the local prior in the Order of Saint Augustine”.

In the same year he was elected director of vocations and director of the missions of the Augustinian province of ‘Mother of Good Counsel’ of Olympia Fields, Illinois. In 1988 he was sent to the mission of Trujillo as director of the joint formation project for Augustinian aspirants in the Vicariates of Chulucanas, Iquitos and Apurímac.

There he served as community prior (1988-1992), director of formation (1988-1998) and teacher of the professed (1992-1998).

In the archdiocese of Trujillo he was judicial vicar (1989-1998), and professor of canon, patristic and moral law in the ‘San Carlos e San Marcelo’ Major Seminary.

In 1999 he was elected provincial prior of the ‘Mother of Good Counsel’ province, Chicago. After two and a half years, the ordinary general Chapter elected him prior general, a ministry again entrusted to him in the 2007 ordinary general Chapter.

In October 2013 he returned to Chicago to serve as teacher of the professed and provincial vicar, roles he held when Pope Francis appointed him apostolic administrator of the diocese of Chiclayo, Peru, elevating him to the dignity of bishop.

On November 7 he took canonical possession of the diocese in the presence of the apostolic nuncio James Patrick Green; he was ordained a bishop on December 12, Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

He served as bishop of Chiclayo from November 26, 2015. In March 2018 he became second vice president of the Peruvian Episcopal Conference.

Pope Francis appointed him a member of the Congregation for the Clergy in 2019, and member of the Congregation for Bishops in 2020.

On April 15, 2020, the Pope appointed him apostolic administrator of the diocese of Callao.

On January 30, 2023 Pope Francis appointed Cardinal Prevost as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.

He was created and proclaimed Cardinal by Pope Francis in the Consistory of September 30, 2023, of the Deaconry of Santa Monica.