USA Cardinal Robert Prevost was elected the new leader of the Roman Catholic Church on Thursday, taking the name Pope Leo XIV.
After serving as missionary and archbishop in Peru, Prevost presided over one of the most revolutionary reforms of Pope Francis's pontificate, adding three women to the voting bloc that decides which bishop nominations to forward to the pope.
The late Pope Francis brought Prevost, 69, to the Vatican in 2023 to serve as the powerful head of the office that vets bishop nominations from around the world, one of the most important jobs in the Catholic Church.
As a result, Prevost enjoyed a prominence going into the conclave that few other cardinals had.
One strike against him, however, was his nationality, and there has long been a taboo against a US pope, given the geopolitical power already wielded by the United States in the secular sphere.
But Prevost, a Chicago native, is also a Peruvian citizen and lived for years in Peru, first as a missionary and then as an archbishop.
Prevost was also twice elected prior general, or top leader, of the Augustinian religious order, the 13th century order founded by St. Augustine.
Francis clearly had an eye on him for years, moving him from the Augustinian leadership back to Peru in 2014 to serve as the administrator and later archbishop of Chiclayo.
He remained in that position, acquiring Peruvian citizenship in 2015, until Francis brought him to Rome in 2023 to assume the presidency of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.
A small revolution for the Church
In that job he would have kept in regular contact with the Catholic hierarchy in the part of the world that counts still counts the most Catholics.
Ever since he arrived in Rome, Prevost kept a low public profile – though he was well known to the men who count.
Significantly, he presided over one of the most revolutionary reforms Francis made, when he added three women to the voting bloc that decides which bishop nominations to forward to the pope.
In early 2025, Francis again showed his esteem by appointing Prevost to the most senior rank of cardinals, suggesting he would at least be Francis’ choice in an any future conclave.
The Rev. Fidel Purisaca Vigil, the communications director for Prevost’s old diocese in Chiclayo, remembered the cardinal rising each day and having breakfast with his fellow priests after saying his prayers.
“No matter how many problems he has, he maintains good humor and joy,” Purisaca said in an email.
-AP-