Robert Francis Prevost, here’s the Biography of the 267th Pope, Leoni XIV, the second American after Francis
The first Augustinian pope, the second American Pope behind Francis, but unlike Bergoglio, 69-year-old American Robert Francis Prevost was born north of the continent and served as the church shepherd in southern it, before he was called by his predecessor to run the Bishoprics and the Latin Papal Commission.
The New Bishop of Rome chose the name of Leon XIV. He was born on September 14, 1955 in Chicago, Illinois, from Louis Marius Prevost, of French and Italian descent, as well as by Mildred Martínez, of Spanish origin. There are two brothers, Louis Martín and John Joseph.
He spent his childhood and adolescence in the US, first studying at the small Augustinian fathers seminar and then at Villanova University in Pennsylvania, where, in 1977, he graduated in mathematics and studied philosophy. On September 1 of that year, in Saint Louis, he entered the Novic (novice) of St. Augustine’s Order (OSA), in the province of Our Lady of the Good Chicago Council, making the first terms on September 2, 1981, made the final conditions.
He continued to form at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, graduating in theology. At the age of 27, the superiors sent him to Rome to study the canonical law at the papal university of St. Thomas of Aquelicum. In Rome, he was ordained a priest on June 19, 1982, at the Augustinian College of St. Monica by Monsignor Jean Jadot, a pro-President of the Papal Council for non-Christians, now the department for interfaith dialogue.
Prevost obtained the license, therefore, the university diploma, in 1984 and in the following year, while preparing the doctoral thesis, was sent to the Augustinian mission of Chulucanas, in Piura, Peru (1985-1986). In 1987 he received his doctorate with a thesis on the role of the local superior of the Order of St. Augustine and was appointed Director of Calls and Director of the Augustinian Province of « Good Council Mother » in Olympia Fields, Illinois.
The following year went to Trujillo’s mission, always in Peru, as director of the Common Augustinian aspirants project of the Chulucanas, Iquito and Apurímac. During the eleven years, he held the task of the superior of the community (1988-1992), the Director of Formation (1988-1998) and the teacher of the candidates for Augustinian (1992-1998), as well as at the Chief of Trujillo, the Judicial Vicar (1989-1998) and the Professor of the Law, the Law of the Law, « San Carlos Y San Marcelo ». At the same time, he was also entrusted with the pastor of the Borge of Lady of Our Mother of the Church, who later became the parish with the title of St. Rita (1988-1999), on the poor outskirts of the city, and was the administrator of the parish of Our Lady of Monsrrat from 1992 to 1999.
In 1999, he was elected provincial superior of the Augustinian province of the « Mother of the Good Counsel » in Chicago and, two and a half years later, in the ordinary chapter of the Order of St. Augustine, his brothers elected the superior general, confirming in 2007 for a second term.
In October 2013, he returned to his Augustinian province in Chicago and became the director of the formation in the Assembly of St. Augustine, the first and Vicar provincial adviser; The task he held until Pope Francis appointed, on November 3, 2014, the Apostolic Administrator of the Chiclayo Peruvian diocese and, at the same time, the title of Sufar. On November 7, he entered the diocese, in the presence of the apostolic Nuncio James Patrick Green, who ordered the bishop just over a month later, on December 12, at the Our Lady of Guadalupe, at St. Mary’s Cathedral.
His bishop’s motto is « In Illo Uno unum », a word that St. Augustine pronounced in a sermon, « appearance on Psalm 127 », to explain that « although we Christians are many, in Christ we are one. »
On September 26, 2015, the Argentine Pope named Chiclayo’s bishop and in March 2018, he was elected second vice president of the Conference of the Peruvian Bishopric, in which he was also a member of the Economic Council and President of the Commission on Culture and Education.
In 2019, Francis included it among members of the Congregation for the clergy and the following year, between those of the Congregation for Bishops. In 2020, on April 15, the papal appointment as Apostolic Administrator of the Callao Peruvian diocese arrives.
On January 30, 2023, the Pope summoned him to Rome as the prefect of the department for the Bishoprics and President of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, making the bishops. In the September 30th concise of that year, he created and declared cardinal, designating the Diacony of St. Monica. Prevost took over on January 28, 2024 and, as chairman, participated in Pope Francis’ last apostolic travels and the first and second session of the XVI General and Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Synodialities, held in Rome respectively from October 29 to October 29, 2023. Synodale, acquired in the past as a superior of the Augustinians and as a representative of the unification of general superiors (USG).
Meanwhile, on October 4, 2023, Francis appointed Prevost Member of the Department for Evangelization, the Section for the First Evangelization and the new special churches; of him for the doctrine of religion; of that of the Eastern churches; of him for the clergy; of that of the institutes of regular life and societies of apostolic life; of him for culture and education; of that of legislative texts; as well as in the papal commission for the Vatican state.
Finally, on February 6 this year, it was promoted by the Argentine Pope in the Order of Bishops, receiving the title of the Albano Suburb Church. During his last hospitalization of his predecessor at the Gemelli Polyclinic, Prevost led the Rosary for Francis’s health in St. Peter’s Square on March 3.
Vatican
