US EditionCould Cardinal Robert Prevost, Originally From Chicago, Become First American Pope?
- Cardinal Robert Prevost, born in Chicago in 1955, was elected Pope Leo XIV as the first American pope in 2025.
- His election followed decades of service as a missionary and bishop in Peru, gaining Peruvian citizenship in 2015 and returning to Rome in 2023.
- Prevost led the Vatican’s powerful Dicastery for Bishops, overseeing bishop nominations and adding women to the voting bloc under Pope Francis’s guidance.
- The 69-year-old cardinal was described by Italian media as cosmopolitan and appreciated by conservatives and progressives alike, highlighting his global visibility.
- Prevost’s election suggests continuity in church leadership while raising questions about his relative youth and the longevity of his potential papacy.
35 Articles
35 Articles
AP PHOTOS: The world reacts to new pope
From the St. Peter’s Basilica to his native Chicago to his diocese of Chiclayo, Peru, Catholic faithful around the world greeted the election of Robert Prevost as the new pope. Prevost, a 69-year-old member of the Augustinian religious order, took…
Who is Robert Prevost: Cardinal of the United States and Spanish ancestry, and Augustinian missionary in Peru
Born on 14 September 1955 in Chicago, son of a mother of Spanish descent, he entered the novitiate of the Order of St. Augustine (O.S.A.) in 1977 and made his solemn vows in 1981.
From a Chicago-Born Augustinian to the Vatican’s Secretary of State, Which Cardinals Could be the Next Pope?
Anyone trying to handicap the outcome should remember that Jorge Mario Bergoglio was considered too old to be elected pope in 2013 at age 76, and that Karol Wojtyla wasn’t on any front-runner lists going into the 1978 conclave that elected him Pope John Paul II.
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