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After two days of conclave, it was announced Thursday at St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City that Cardinal Robert Prevost was elected head of the Catholic Church and new leader of 1.4 billion Catholics worldwide.
As white smoke blew from the Sistine Chapel chimney, thousands below erupted into tears of happiness and joy: a new pope, the first American pope in the Church’s 2,000-year history, Pope Leo XIV.
“What a surprise to learn that a young country like the United States of America would bring forth one of her own sons to become the shepherd of the Universal Church,” said Bishop Edward J Burns of the Catholic Diocese of Dallas. “This is a historic moment for the Catholic Church in the United States and throughout the world.”
While Pope Leo XIV is the first American pope, he holds citizenship in Peru. He spent about two decades there as a missionary, bishop, and ultimately, he was appointed Bishop of Chiclayo in 2014. He was promoted to archbishop in 2023 and a cardinal the following year.
He was born in 1955 in Chicago, Illinois. He studied first at the Minor Seminary of the Augustinian Fathers. He then attended Villanova University in Pennsylvania, where he earned a Degree in Mathematics and also studied Philosophy.
He received his theological education at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. In 1982, he went to Rome to study Canon Law at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, where Leo was later ordained as a priest.
For those who want to want to continue to celebrate locally, St. Monica Catholic Church will be having a bilingual mass Friday at 6 p.m.
