Pope Leo XIV

Pope Leo XIV was born Robert Francis Prevost on September 14, 1955 at Mercy Hospital in Chicago, Illinois. 

EARLY LIFE

Young Robert was raised in a bilingual household with French Canadian roots, where the Sacred Heart of Jesus shared wall space with a Chicago Cubs calendar. He was reportedly a quiet child, fond of libraries and guitars, and once served as the best altar boy in his parish for three consecutive years—an achievement that earned him a glow-in-the-dark rosary and a firm handshake from the bishop.

Robert was the editor-in-chief of his high school's yearbook.

Prevost's childhood home in Dolton, Illinois by Michael Howie,

He joined the Order of St. Augustine in his teens and went on to study theology in Rome, where he developed a taste for both espresso and ecclesial nuance. But it was in the Andes of northern Peru—not in the marble halls of the Vatican—that he found his true spiritual home.

MISSIONARY IN PERU

Sent to Chulucanas in the 1980s, Prevost embraced missionary life with the zeal of a friar and the practicality of a Midwesterner. He learned Spanish (and enough Quechua to impress grandmothers at village festivals), rode mules to remote parishes, and once helped build a chapel roof using palm fronds, prayer, and a borrowed hammer.

In one oft-repeated local story, Father Prevost postponed a regional meeting of clergy to deliver medicine to a highland family struck by dengue fever—proving that for him, the “periphery” wasn’t a theological buzzword but a real place with names, needs, and neighbors.

Eventually he became bishop of Chiclayo, a bustling coastal diocese where he was known for traveling without entourage and for quoting St. Augustine during Sunday homilies—sometimes to puzzled teenagers, always with conviction.

FROM BISHOP  TO POPE 

In 2014, after decades in Peru, Prevost was unexpectedly called back to his native United States to become bishop of the Diocese of Chicagoland’s lesser-known cousin—Chiclayo, Peru. From there, he was swiftly noticed in Rome for his mix of doctrinal orthodoxy, pastoral warmth, and an uncanny ability to manage both spreadsheets and seminarians.

The Vatican first tapped him for advisory roles on Latin American clergy formation, but he didn’t truly step into the spotlight until 2020, when Pope Francis brought him into the Dicastery for Bishops—essentially the department in charge of vetting and recommending bishops worldwide. It was here that Prevost became known as “The Augie Whisperer” for his habit of quietly but firmly advancing humble, community-rooted pastors over polished climbers.

By 2023, he was made Prefect of the Dicastery—a job that is part HR director, part talent scout, part ecclesial gatekeeper. Insiders say he kept a small notebook listing prospective bishops, which he cross-referenced with prayer requests and notes about how they treated their staff.

Cardinal Robert F. Prevost at the Consistory in 2023

In an institution sometimes known for its Byzantine bureaucracy, Prevost stood out for his insistence that holiness was more important than a résumé—and that bishops should smell like their sheep, not their incense. He played a key role in promoting less clerical, more community-rooted shepherds—sometimes to the confusion of careerist monsignors used to silk cassocks and smooth corridors.

He also won points for his unruffled manner in high-stress meetings and his trademark pastoral quip: “A bishop isn’t a CEO—he’s a shepherd, and sometimes a shepherd has to carry the sheep and fix the fence.”

Provost was known in the Curia for wearing sandals well into November and quoting St. Augustine in multiple languages. 

Though he remained relatively low-profile outside church circles, Vatican-watchers quietly began floating his name as papabile—a potential future pope. When the conclave of 2025 began,  following the death and funeral of Pope Francis, few expected the quiet American friar with Peruvian roots to emerge in white.

PAPACY

Robert Francis Prevost was elected pope on May 8, 2025. Upon election, he chose the name Leo in homage to both Leo I (who talked Attila the Hun out of sacking Rome) and Leo XIII (who issued Rerum Novarum, the foundational text of Catholic social teaching). The “XIV” raised eyebrows in trivia circles, as no Leo had reigned in over 120 years—leading some to joke that “he must be a fan of sequels.”

Despite the dramatic expectations often attached to new papacies, Leo XIV began his reign quietly, reportedly spending his first morning in the Domus Sanctae Marthae cafeteria, sipping coffee and asking the staff about their families.

He is the first pope to have been both a missionary bishop in Latin America and a Vatican official in Rome—what one Vatican wag dubbed a “bicameral pope.”

Pope Leo XIV's Spanish is fluent, his demeanor quietly tenacious, and his theology refreshingly pastoral—he once described ecclesial reform as “more like gardening than engineering.”