VATICAN CITY — Cardinal Robert Prevost, an American missionary born in Chicago who spent his career ministering in Peru and leads the Vatican’s powerful office of bishops, was elected the first American pope in the 2,000-year history of the Catholic Church.
Prevost, a 69-year-old member of the Augustinian religious order, took the name Leo XIV.
In his first words as Pope Francis’ successor, uttered from the loggia of St. Peter's Basilica, Leo said, “Peace be with you,” and emphasized a message of peace, dialogue and missionary evangelization. He wore the traditional red cape of the papacy — a cape that Francis had eschewed on his election in 2013.
From the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica, history’s first American pope recalled that he was an Augustinian priest, but a Christian above all, and a bishop, “so we can all walk together.”
He spoke in Italian and then switched to Spanish, recalling his many years spent as a missionary and then archbishop of Chiclayo, Peru.
“Peace be with you all. Dear brothers and sisters, this is the first greeting of the Risen Christ, the good shepherd who gave his life for the flock of God,” the new pope said. “I too would like this greeting of peace to enter your hearts to reach your families to all people everywhere to all the earth: peace be with you.”
As Prevost began to speak to the crowd gathered in Vatican City's St. Peter's Square, the voting cardinals filled the four balconies that flank the flag-draped balcony where he introduced himself to the church and the world. Many — including several who had been identified as possible contenders — seemed joyful as they look over the crowd below.
Francis brought Prevost, 69, to the Vatican in 2023 to serve as the powerful head of the office that vets bishop nominations from around the world, one of the most important jobs in the Catholic Church. As a result, Prevost had a prominence going into the conclave that few other cardinals have.
There has long been a taboo against a U.S. pope, given the geopolitical power already wielded by the United States in the secular sphere. But Prevost, a Chicago native, is also a Peruvian citizen and lived for years in Peru, first as a missionary and then as an archbishop.
U.S. President Donald Trump said it was “such an honor for our country” for the new pope to be American.
“What greater honor can there be,” he said. The president added that “we’re a little bit surprised and we’re happy.”
Prevost was also twice elected prior general, or top leader, of the Augustinian religious order, the 13th century order founded by St. Augustine. Francis clearly had an eye on him for years, moving him from the Augustinian leadership back to Peru in 2014 to serve as the administrator and later archbishop of Chiclayo, which sits sits just 9 miles away from Peru’s northern Pacific coast and is among the country’s most populous cities.
He remained in that position, acquiring Peruvian citizenship in 2015, until Francis brought him to Rome in 2023 to assume the presidency of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America. In that job he would have kept in regular contact with the Catholic hierarchy in the part of the world that counts still counts the most Catholics.
“Greetings... to all of you, and in particular, to my beloved diocese of Chiclayo in Peru, where a faithful people have accompanied their bishop, shared their faith,” he said on Thursday in Spanish.
Ever since he arrived in Rome, Prevost has kept a low public profile, but he was well known to the men who count.
The last pope to take the name Leo was Leo XIII, an Italian who led the church from 1878 to 1903. That Leo softened the church’s confrontational stance toward modernity, especially science and politics and laid the foundation for modern Catholic social thought, most famously with his 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum, which addressed workers’ rights and capitalism.
Waving flags from around the world, tens of thousands of people waited to learn who had won and were shocked when an hour later, the senior cardinal deacon appeared on the loggia and said “Habemus Papam!” and announced the winner was Prevost.
An Augustinian pope
Vatican watchers said Prevost's decision to name himself Leo was particularly significant given the previous Leo's legacy of social justice and reform, suggesting continuity with some of Francis' chief concerns.
“I think this pope is saying something about social justice by choosing this name, that it is going to be a priority. He is continuing a lot of Francis’ ministry,’’ said Natalia Imperatori-Lee, the chair of religious studies at Manhattan University in the Bronx.
But Imperatori-Lee also said his election could send shockwaves through the U.S. church, which has been badly divided between conservatives and progressives, with much of the right-wing opposition to Francis coming from the U.S.
During his 12-year papacy, Francis sought to remake the U.S. hierarchy, and with Prevost's help starting in 2023, named more pastorally minded bishops to replace culture warriors favored by Popes Benedict XVI and John Paul II.
"I think it is going to be exciting to see a different kind of American Catholicism in Rome,’’ Imperatori-Lee said.
Leo was expected to celebrate Mass with cardinals in the Sistine Chapel on Friday, planned to deliver his first Sunday noon blessing from the loggia of St. Peter's and lined up an audience with the media Monday in the Vatican auditorium, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said.
The new pope was formerly the prior general, or leader, of the Order of St. Augustine, which was formed in the 13th century as a community of “mendicant” friars — dedicated to poverty, service and evangelization. Vatican News said Leo is the first Augustinian pope.
The requirements and ethos of the order are traced to the fifth century St. Augustine of Hippo, one of the theological and devotional giants of early Christianity.
The Order of St. Augustine has a presence in about 50 countries, according to its website. Its ethos includes a contemplative spirituality, communal living and service to others. A core value in their rule is to “live together in harmony, being of one mind and one heart on the way to God.”
Prevost graduated from the Augustinian Villanova University, in suburban Philadelphia, and his election thrilled American students studying in Rome who happened to be in St. Peter's Square to witness history.
“That’s the first American pope in history. How exciting!” said Alessandra Jarrett, a 21-year-old political science student at Rome’s John Cabot university. “Crazy that we’re able to be here and see it, and this was even our last day in school.”
Sister Bernadette, a 50-year-old nun from Houston, Texas, was studying spirituality in Rome at the same university where Prevost did graduate studies, the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, known as the Angelicum.
“He touched the heart of everyone, and he acknowledged the great work of Francis, which he wants to continue embracing the world and embracing all of our brothers and sisters in Christ,” she said.
Pope Francis was the first pope from the Jesuit religious order ever, and the first in more than a century and a half to come from any religious order. The previous one was Gregory XVI (1831-1846), a Camaldolese monk.
