Leo XIV is the brand new Pope

Annuntio vobis gaudium:

HABEMUS PAPAM

Eminentissimum ac reverendissimum Dominum Robertum Franciscum
Sanctae Romane Ecclesiae Cardinalem Prevost
qui sibi nomen imposuit Leo XIV

I announce to you an excellent pleasure:

WE HAVE A POPE

The Most Eminent and Most Reverend Lord Robert Francis
Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church Prevost
who has taken the identify Leo XIV

Just some moments in the past, from the central loggia of Saint Peter’s Basilica, Cardinal Protodeacon Dominique Mamberti pronounced the components “Habemus Papam,” proclaiming to town of Rome and to the entire world the information of the election of Robert Francis Cardinal Prevost as Pope Leo XIV

Leo XIV – Second Pope from the Americas

The primary Augustinian Pope, Robert Prevost – now Leo XIV – is the second Roman Pontiff from the Americas after Pope Francis. Nevertheless, not like Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the 69-year-old Robert Francis Prevost is from the northern a part of the American continent, although he spent a few years as a missionary in Peru earlier than being elected head of the Augustinians for 2 consecutive phrases.

First Augustinian Pope

The brand new Bishop of Rome was born on September 14, 1955, in Chicago, Illinois, to Louis Marius Prevost, of French and Italian descent, and Mildred Martínez, of Spanish descent. He has two brothers, Louis Martín and John Joseph.

He spent his childhood and adolescence along with his household and studied first on the Minor Seminary of the Augustinian Fathers after which at Villanova College in Pennsylvania, the place in 1977 he earned a Diploma in Arithmetic and likewise studied Philosophy. 

On September 1 of the identical yr, he entered the novitiate of the Order of Saint Augustine (O.S.A.) in Saint Louis, within the Province of Our Girl of Good Counsel of Chicago, and made his first occupation on September 2, 1978. On August 29, 1981, he made his solemn vows.

He obtained his theological schooling on the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. On the age of 27, he was despatched by his superiors to Rome to check Canon Legislation on the Pontifical College of Saint Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum). 

In Rome, he was ordained a priest on June 19, 1982, on the Augustinian Faculty of Saint Monica by Monsignor Jean Jadot, then Professional-President of the Pontifical Council for Non-Christians, now the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue.

Prevost obtained his licentiate in 1984; and the next yr, whereas getting ready his doctoral thesis, was despatched to the Augustinian mission in Chulucanas, Piura, Peru (1985–1986). In 1987, he defended his doctoral thesis on “The Function of the Native Prior within the Order of Saint Augustine” and was appointed vocation director and missions director of the Augustinian Province of “Mom of Good Counsel” in Olympia Fields, Illinois (USA).

Mission in Peru

The next yr, he joined the mission in Trujillo, additionally in Peru, as director of the joint formation challenge for Augustinian candidates from the vicariates of Chulucanas, Iquitos, and Apurímac. 

Over the course of 11 years, he served as prior of the group (1988–1992), formation director (1988–1998), and teacher for professed members (1992–1998), and within the Archdiocese of Trujillo as judicial vicar (1989–1998) and professor of Canon Legislation, Patristics, and Ethical Theology on the Main Seminary “San Carlos y San Marcelo.” On the identical time, he was additionally entrusted with the pastoral care of Our Girl Mom of the Church, later established because the parish of Saint Rita (1988–1999), in a poor suburb of town, and was parish administrator of Our Girl of Monserrat from 1992 to 1999.

In 1999, he was elected Provincial Prior of the Augustinian Province of “Mom of Good Counsel” in Chicago, and two and a half years later, the Strange Basic Chapter of the Order of Saint Augustine, elected him as Prior Basic, confirming him in 2007 for a second time period.

In October 2013, he returned to his Augustinian Province in Chicago, serving as director of formation on the Saint Augustine Convent, first councilor, and provincial vicar—roles he held till Pope Francis appointed him on November 3, 2014, as Apostolic Administrator of the Peruvian Diocese of Chiclayo, elevating him to the episcopal dignity as Titular Bishop of the Diocese Sufar. 

He entered the Diocese on November 7, within the presence of Apostolic Nuncio James Patrick Inexperienced, who ordained him Bishop simply over a month later, on December 12, the Feast of Our Girl of Guadalupe, within the Cathedral of Saint Mary.

His episcopal motto is “In Illo uno unum”—phrases pronounced by Saint Augustine in a sermon on Psalm 127 to clarify that “though we Christians are many, within the one Christ we’re one.”

Bishop of Chiclayo, Peru, from 2015 to 2023

On September 26, 2015, he was appointed Bishop of Chiclayo by Pope Francis. In March 2018, he was elected second vice-president of the Peruvian Episcopal Convention, the place he additionally served as a member of the Financial Council and as president of the Fee for Tradition and Schooling.

In 2019, Pope Francis appointed him a member of the Congregation for the Clergy (July 13, 2019), and in 2020, a member of the Congregation for Bishops (November 21). In the meantime, on April 15, 2020, he was additionally appointed Apostolic Administrator of the Peruvian Diocese of Callao.

Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops

On January 30, 2023, the Pope known as him to Rome as Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and President of the Pontifical Fee for Latin America, selling him to the rank of Archbishop. 

Created Cardinal in 2024

Pope Francis created Prevost Cardinal within the Consistory of September 30 of that yr and assigned him the Diaconate of Saint Monica. He formally took possession of his Titular church on January 28, 2024. 

As head of the Dicastery, he participated within the Pope’s most up-to-date Apostolic Journeys and in each the primary and second periods of the sixteenth Strange Basic Meeting of the Synod of Bishops on synodality, held in Rome from October 4 to 29, 2023, and from October 2 to 27, 2024, respectively.

In the meantime, on October 4, 2023, Pope Francis appointed him as a member of the Dicasteries for Evangelization (Part for First Evangelization and New Specific Church buildings), for the Doctrine of the Religion, for the Japanese Church buildings, for the Clergy, for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, for Tradition and Schooling, for Legislative Texts, and of the Pontifical Fee for the Vatican Metropolis State.

Lastly, on February 6 of this yr, the Argentine Pope promoted him to the Order of Bishops, granting him the title of the Suburbicarian Church of Albano.

Throughout the latest hospitalization of his predecessor on the “Gemelli” hospital Prevost presided over the Rosary for Pope Francis’s well being in Saint Peter’s Sq. on March 3.

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