“I would like this greeting of peace to resound in your hearts, in your families, among all people, wherever they may be, in every nation and throughout the world. Peace be with you!” he said.

Pope Leo XIV appeared on the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica around 7:20 p.m. (Rome time) on May 8, 2025, a little more than an hour after white smoke rose from the chimney on the roof of the Sistine Chapel, signaling to the world that the cardinal electors had chosen a new pope. As bells rang, thousands flocked to St. Peter’s Square to see the 266th successor to St. Peter. 

The choice, coming on just the second day of the conclave, was a surprise to many: 69-year-old Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, a member of the Order of St. Augustine, who was raised in Dolton, Illinois, a Chicago suburb. He is the first Augustinian pope and the first pope ever to be born in the United States.

“As I watched Pope Leo XIV step onto the loggia for the first time, I was overwhelmed with excitement, bewilderment, and joy. I immediately felt a connection to him, not just because he’s an American but because he so clearly carries the heart of a shepherd. He radiates gentleness and quiet strength. His experience serving around the world, his commitment to unity, and his unassuming humility give me great hope for the Church. I truly believe he will shepherd us with the heart of Christ,” says Father Kyle Doustou, vicar general for the Diocese of Portland.

Speaking after the conclave, cardinals from the United States who participated in the voting said Cardinal Prevost’s nationality played little role in the selection. Rather, Cardinal Prevost was seen as someone who could continue the mission of Pope Francis, while bringing unity to the Church.

 “Who among us can bring us together? Who among us can strengthen the faith and bring the faith to places where it has grown weak, bring the faith to places where there seems to be less enthusiasm or appreciation of the common things that draw us together?” said Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory, archbishop emeritus of Washington.

Pope Leo XIV spoke of the need for unity during his first blessing “urbi et orbi” (to the city of Rome and to the world), calling on one and all “to build bridges through dialogue and encounter, joining together as one people, always at peace.” 

It was a message he shared again during the Mass for the initiation of his Petrine ministry, celebrated in St. Peter’s Square on May 18.

“Brothers and sisters, I would like that our first great desire be for a united Church, a sign of unity and communion, which becomes a leaven for a reconciled world,” he said in his homily. “In this, our time, we still see too much discord, too many wounds caused by hatred, violence, prejudice, the fear of difference, and an economic paradigm that exploits the earth’s resources and marginalizes the poorest.”

That desire for unity is also reflected in the motto on his episcopal coat of arms. Taken from the words of St. Augustine, it reads In Illo uno unum (“In the One, we are one”).

Although he was born and raised in the United States, Pope Leo XIV is someone with global experience, having spent nearly two decades serving in Peru, first as a missionary priest and later as a bishop. Most recently, he served at the Vatican as the prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, which assists the pope in appointing bishops for dioceses around the world. He also served as president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, among other positions.

Pope Leo XIV was born on September 14, 1955, in Chicago, Illinois. He is the son of Louis Marius Prevost and Mildred Martinez, and he has two older brothers, Louis Martin and John Joseph. His father was a World War II Navy veteran and school superintendent, while his mother was a librarian. Both were active at St. Mary of the Assumption Church on Chicago’s south side, as was a young Robert, who served as an altar boy and attended the parish school.

In interviews following his election as pope, his brothers said that he always wanted to be a priest, describing how he would play at celebrating Mass as a child, using an ironing board as an altar and Necco wafers as hosts.

He studied at an Augustinian minor seminary in Michigan, where he excelled academically, then earned a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics from Villanova University in Pennsylvania.

He entered the Order of St. Augustine in 1978, making his solemn vows in 1981. The order, which dates to the 13th century, is guided by the teachings of Christ and the Rule of St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo (354-430 AD). The rule emphasizes love of God and neighbor and “being of one mind and heart on the way to God.”

“I am an Augustinian, a son of St. Augustine, who once said, ‘With you, I am a Christian, and for you, I am a bishop.’ In this sense, all of us can journey together toward the homeland that God has prepared for us,” Pope Leo XIV said during his blessing “urbi et orbi.”

After receiving a Master of Divinity degree from Catholic Theological Union of Chicago, he was ordained to the priesthood on June 19, 1982. He then received a licentiate in canon law from Pontifical College of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome in 1984 and a doctorate in 1987.

While preparing his doctoral thesis, then-Father Prevost was sent to Peru in 1985 to spend a year serving the poor in an Augustinian mission in the Diocese of Chulucanas. Sister Patricia Pora, RSM, former director of Hispanic Ministry for the Diocese of Portland, served with Augustinians in that same diocese a few years later (1990-2001). She remembers meeting the future pope when he came back to visit and believes his experiences there will shape his pontificate.

“He knows what the reality of the world is right now, what the reality of these people are,” she says. “Pope Francis was wonderful, too. But he was urban. This guy is rural. And he knows the reality of the extreme poverty in most of these very rural areas that run down the whole of Central and South America.”

The future pope would spend the first 40 years of his ministry either in Peru, which would become a second home to him, or in leadership positions for the Augustinian Order. He served briefly as vocations and missions director for the Augustinian Province of Our Mother of Good Counsel in Illinois, then spent 11 years in Trujillo, Peru, serving in several capacities, including prior of the community, formation director, an instructor for professed members, judicial vicar, a canon law professor, and a parish administrator.

In 1999, he returned to the United States to serve as prior provincial of the Province of Our Mother of Good Counsel. Then, two and a half years later, he was elected prior general of the worldwide Augustinians, a position he held until 2013.

Soon after that, Pope Francis appointed then-Father Prevost as apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Chiclayo, Peru, and the titular bishop of Sufar. He was ordained a bishop on December 12, 2014, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. He was appointed as bishop of Chiclayo the following November, a position he continued to hold until January 2023, when Pope Francis called him to Rome, after appointing him prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America. He was elevated to the rank of archbishop and then created a cardinal that September.

Those who know Pope Leo use words such as “quiet,” “thoughtful,” “intelligent,” and “kind” to describe him. Bishop James Ruggieri, who had an opportunity to meet Cardinal Prevost last year during an orientation at the Vatican for newly appointed bishops, says that while the interaction was brief, he found the future pope to be thoughtful and congenial. 

“He’s quite a man from what we have heard and read. He’s quite a disciple, but the Petrine ministry, which he now shares with the popes prior to him, will expand his heart to love like Christ, this sacrificial, selfless, salvific way, making himself a gift even more deeply than he has up to this point in his ministry,” Bishop Ruggieri said during a Mass celebrated for the new pope at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Portland on May 15.

At the Mass, Bishop Ruggieri asked Maine Catholics to join in prayer for Pope Leo, noting the challenges that lie ahead.

“Many have said that the Lord does not give us more than we can handle. Pope Francis of recent memory said in an address that God does not promise we will never suffer but that He will be with us in our suffering and that nothing will ever separate us from His love. That’s my hope for Pope Leo, that he never forgets that. There’ll be much suffering as he carries this burden as successor of Peter. There’ll be much suffering, but he will never suffer alone. And we, for our part, accompany him by our prayers, by our loyalty, and by our love,” the bishop said

Following the conclave, Cardinal Joseph Tobin, archbishop of Newark, recalled that as it became apparent which way the vote was going, the future pope “had his head in his hands” in apparent acknowledgement of the responsibility he was about to assume. Cardinal Tobin said, however, that once Cardinal Prevost accepted the position, “It was like he was made for it.…God had made something clear, and he agreed with it.”

Pope Leo XIV acknowledged the weight of the position during the Mass initiating his pontificate, saying, 

"I was chosen, without any merit of my own, and now, with fear and trembling, I come to you as a brother who desires to be the servant of your faith and your joy, walking with you on the path of God’s love, for He wants us all to be united in one family.”

While still mourning the loss of Pope Francis, for Catholics around the world, especially those from Peru and the United States, the selection of Pope Leo has been reason to celebrate. Nathan and Melissa Maurais of Windham say they were hoping Cardinal Prevost would be the one chosen. They had an opportunity to meet the future pope in the early 2000s, while attending a young adult conference in Spain offered by the Augustinians, and they are good friends with Father Joe Farrell, the vicar general of the Augustinian Order, who knows the pope well.

“My reaction was one of joy for the Church and of joy for the Augustinian Order. I think his motto, ‘In the One, we are one,’ shows the charism that he’s going to use moving forward,” says Nathan, who attended Merrimack College in Massachusetts, which is run by the Augustinians.

“We were just thrilled and surprised and just thankful,” says Melissa, who says they already had a trip to Rome planned and now hope to see Pope Leo.

The new pope has already given indications of the direction his pontificate may go, including his decision to take the name Leo. In a Mass celebrated with cardinals following the conclave, he said that several factors went into the choice, but he was especially influenced by Pope Leo XIII, who led the Church from 1878 to 1903. Pope Leo XIII is often referred to as the founder of modern Catholic social teaching because of his encyclical Rerum Novarum, in which he wrote of the dignity of work and advocated for the rights of workers.

“Leo XIII, in his historic encyclical Rerum Novarum, addressed the social question in the context of the first great industrial revolution. In our own day, the Church offers to everyone the treasury of her social teaching in response to another industrial revolution and to developments in the field of artificial intelligence that pose new challenges for the defense of human dignity, justice, and labor,” Pope Leo XIV said.

In addition to walking in the footsteps of Leo XIII, Pope Leo XIV also expressed his intention to build upon Pope Francis’s legacy, praising his predecessor’s “example of complete dedication to service.”

He has called on the Church to be a missionary Church of peace, justice, and truth, stressing the need to bring the light of Christ to others in today’s world.

“We want to be a synodal Church, a Church that moves forward, a Church that always seeks peace, that always seeks charity, that always seeks to be close above all to those who are suffering,” he said.

And, he said, we must seek those things together.

“All of us are in God’s hands, so let us move forward, without fear, together, hand in hand with God and with one another.”