The Catholic Conference of Illinois rejoices today in the news that the first American Pope and Chicago native Cardinal Robert Prevost is Pope Leo XIV!
Born in Chicago in 1955, after studying at the novitiate of the Order of Saint Augustine in St. Louis he went on to graduate from Villanova in 1977. He studied at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago and then went to Rome to study Canon Law at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Rome. He was ordained a priest in 1982.
Over the course of many years after becoming a priest, he was in Peru in various roles becoming Bishop of the Peruvian Diocese of Chiclayo in 2015. His episcopal motto is “In Illo uno unum,” words explained by Saint Augustine in a sermon in Psalm 127 to explain that “although we Christians are many, in the one Christ we are one.”
In 2020, Pope Francis appointed him member of the Congregation for Bishops. He was named a Cardinal in 2023.
In his prayer to the faithful at St. Peter’s Square today he included Jesus, Pope Francis and Saint John Paul II.
And, no – we do not know if he is a Cubs fan or a White Sox fan.
Please join us in praying for Pope Leo XIV.