United States Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost is the world’s 267th pope. He’s now known as Pope Leo XIV.
He stepped onto the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica as the new leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.
Prevost, 69, from Chicago, Illinois, is the first ever pope from the United States.
In his first words as pope, a visibly emotional Leo said to the crowd in St. Peter’s Square: “Peace be with you all.”
Addressing the crowd in St. Peter’s Square, Leo paid tribute to the late pontiff Francis, urging the crowd to remember his predecessor’s legacy before outlining his vision for the Catholic Church.
“We have to seek together to be a missionary church. A church that builds bridges and dialogue,” he said. Speaking in Italian to thousands of Catholic faithful, Leo called on people to “show our charity” to others “and be in dialog with love.”
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Leo was chosen just two days after a group of 133 Cardinals gathered in conclave to select a new pontiff.
That timeline matches the previous two gatherings, suggesting that Prevost quickly impressed his peers during the secretive process.
Francis and Benedict XVI were both revealed on the evening of the conclave’s second day, while John Paul II, the longest-reigning pope of modern times, was selected on the third day in 1978.
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Prevost earned his bachelor’s in mathematics from Villanova University in Pennsylvania and went on to receive his diploma in theology from the Catholic Theological Union of Chicago.
He was later sent to Rome to study canon law at the Pontifical Saint Thomas Aquinas University and was ordained as a priest in June 1982. Later in his career, he taught canon law in the seminary in Trujillo, Peru.
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In an interview with Vatican News shortly after he became the leader of the Dicastery for Bishops, Pope Leo XIV said:
“I still consider myself a missionary. My vocation, like that of every Christian, is to be a missionary, to proclaim the Gospel wherever one is.”
