Robert Prevost is Pope Leo XIV: The first American Pope in Peruvian Heart

First Agustino Pope and the second American Pontiff after Francisco, Leo XIV – the American Robert Francis Prevost, 69 years old and Peruvian nationalized – is not only originally from the north of the continent, but also lived several years in Peru, a country he reached in 1985 and where he forged an intense pastoral work that deeply marked his ecclesial and missionary identity.

In his first speech to the world on May 8, 2025, the Pontiff thanked the diocese of Chiclayo (Peru), where he served as a pastor between 2014 and 2023: “And if they also allow me, a word, a greeting to all those and in particular to my dear diocese of Chiclayo, in Peru, where a faithful people have accompanied his bishop, he has shared his faith, has shared his faith, So much, both to continue being a faithful church of Jesus Christ. “

The new Pontiff speaks five languages: English, Spanish, Italian, French and Portuguese, and Lee Latin and German.

Robert Francis Prevost was born on September 14, 1955 in Chicago, United States. According to him Official Site of the Holy Seein 1977 he entered the novitiate of the Order of San Agustín (OSA) in the province of Our Lady of Good Counsel (Our Lady of Good Council), in Saint Louis. On August 29, 1981, he professed his solemn votes.

He studied at the Minor Seminar of the Augustinian parents and obtained the titles of Mathematical Sciences and Philosophy at the University of Villanova. He completed a master’s degree in divinity with an emphasis on intercultural mission in the Catholic Theological Union of Chicago.

With 27 years, he was sent to Rome to study Canon Law at the Pontifical Santo Tomás University of Aquinas (Angelicum). He was ordained a priest on June 19, 1982. Two years later he obtained a degree in Canon Law and, shortly after, he was assigned to the Mission of Chulucanas, in Piura (Peru), where he worked between 1985 and 1986.

In 1987 he obtained a doctorate with mention Great with praise at the Angelicum University of Rome, with a thesis on the role of the prior local in the order of San Agustín. That same year he was appointed director of vocations and missions of his province in Illinois.

The following year, in 1988, he returned to Peru, this time to Trujillo, as director of a training project for young Agustinians of several vicariate.

There was also a community prior, training director and teacher trainer. In addition, in the Archdiocese of Trujillo, he exercised as a judicial vicar and professor of canon, patristic and moral law in the major seminary “San Carlos and San Marcelo”.

In 1999 he was elected provincial prior of his Augustinian province in Chicago. Then, the General Chapter elected him a prior order of the Order, a position he held for two periods, until 2013.

On his return in his province, he assumed as Professor Trainer and Provincial Vicar, until Pope Francis appointed him Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Chiclayo on November 3, 2014, raising him to the episcopate and assigning him the headquarters headquarters of Sufar. He took canonical possession of the diocese on November 7 and was ordered Bishop on December 12 of that year, feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, in the Cathedral of Chiclayo.

He was a bishop of Chiclayo until 2023, and at that time he also occupied other important positions: in 2018 he was elected second vice president of the Peruvian Episcopal Conference; In 2019 he was appointed by the Pope as a member of the Congregation for the clergy and, in 2020, of the Congregation for Bishops. That same year, in addition, the Apostolic Administration of the Diocese of Callao was entrusted.

On January 30, 2023, Pope Francis appointed him Prefect of Dicastery for Bishops and President of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.

Finally, on September 30, 2023, Cardinal was created by Pope Francis in the Consistory held in Rome, receiving the Diaconal Title of Santa Monica.