Pope Leo XIV

Born 1955 United States Augustinian Catholic Church

Pope Leo XIV is the 267th pope, elected on 8 May 2025 after the death of Pope Francis on 21 April. He was born Robert Francis Prevost in Chicago in 1955, joined the Order of Saint Augustine, and spent much of his priesthood in Peru, where he became a naturalised citizen and later bishop of Chiclayo. He is the first pope born in the United States.

Early Life and the Augustinians

Robert Francis Prevost was born on 14 September 1955 in Chicago, Illinois. He entered the Order of Saint Augustine, the religious family founded on the Rule of St Augustine of Hippo, and was ordained a priest in 1982. Augustinian life is built on common ownership, shared prayer and a community held together by friendship, and that formation shaped the way he later governed.

He studied canon law in Rome, and his order elected him Prior General twice, so that he led the Augustinians worldwide from 2001 to 2013. That role took him across the order's houses on every continent and gave him an unusually wide view of the Church before he ever held a diocese.

Missionary and Bishop in Peru

Prevost spent much of his priesthood in Peru, first as a missionary and formator and later in diocesan leadership. He became a naturalised Peruvian citizen, and he is a citizen of both Peru and the United States. In 2015 Pope Francis appointed him bishop of Chiclayo on the northern coast, where he served until 2023.

Those years matter for reading his papacy. A pope formed in a poor coastal diocese in Latin America, in an order without personal property, comes to Rome with the concerns of the global South already in his hands rather than as a subject he has read about.

Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops

In 2023 Pope Francis called him to Rome as Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, the office that vets and recommends candidates for every episcopal appointment in the Latin Church. Francis created him a cardinal the same year. Few jobs give a churchman a closer view of the world's hierarchy, and holding it made him widely known to the cardinals who would soon elect him.

Election as Pope

Pope Francis died on 21 April 2025. The College of Cardinals entered conclave and elected Prevost on 8 May 2025. He took the name Leo, the first pope to do so since Leo XIII, whose 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum laid the foundation of modern Catholic social teaching. The choice of name is the clearest signal a new pope gives about the direction he intends, and this one pointed at the Church's teaching on labour, dignity and the social order.

His election ended a long assumption that the cardinals would never choose an American, on the reasoning that a pope from a superpower would carry too much political freight. His Peruvian citizenship and his decades outside the United States complicated that objection.

Why the Name Leo

Leo XIII took office in 1878 and wrote Rerum Novarum at a moment when industrial work was remaking European society faster than the Church had language for. He defended the right to a just wage, the right to organise, and private property, against both unregulated capitalism and socialism. A pope taking that name in 2025, with automation and artificial intelligence reshaping work again, is making an argument about what the next decades will demand.

Leo the Great, the fifth-century pope who met Attila and whose Tome shaped the definition at Chalcedon, stands behind the name too. Read more about him on our page for Pope St Leo the Great.

What Catholics Should Watch

It is early, and an honest page says so. The questions a reader can follow are visible already: whether the synodal process Francis began continues in the same form, how the Dicastery for Bishops changes under a pope who ran it, what he writes on work and technology given the name he chose, and how he handles the abuse crisis that has shaped every pontificate since John Paul II.

The site will not guess at answers he has not given. For the doctrine of the office itself, see the papacy, and for the prophecy that circulates online about the last pope, see the Prophecy of the Popes, which explains why that list does not hold up.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Pope Leo XIV?

Pope Leo XIV is the 267th pope of the Catholic Church, elected on 8 May 2025. He was born Robert Francis Prevost in Chicago on 14 September 1955, is a member of the Order of Saint Augustine, and served as a missionary and later bishop in Peru before becoming Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops in 2023.

Is Pope Leo XIV the first American pope?

Yes. Leo XIV is the first pope born in the United States. He is also a naturalised citizen of Peru, where he spent much of his priesthood, so he holds dual citizenship.

Why did he choose the name Leo?

The most recent Leo, Leo XIII, wrote Rerum Novarum in 1891 and founded modern Catholic social teaching on work, wages and the dignity of labour. Choosing the name signals continuity with that tradition at a moment when technology is again changing how people work.

What religious order does Pope Leo XIV belong to?

He is an Augustinian, a member of the Order of Saint Augustine, and he led that order worldwide as Prior General from 2001 to 2013.