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@AJEnglishCardinal Robert Prevost elected as Pope Leo XIV, first US pontiff https://t.co/5d4fgNIdaD
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Chicago-Born Cardinal Robert Prevost Elected Pope Leo XIV, First American to Lead Catholic Church
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Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, a 69-year-old Chicago native, was elected the 267th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church on 8 May, taking the papal name Leo XIV. The announcement from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica makes him the first American to lead the Church in its two-thousand-year history.
Prevost succeeds the late Pope Francis and now assumes spiritual leadership of the world’s roughly 1.4 billion Catholics. His elevation came on the second day of the conclave, when 133 cardinal electors met in the Sistine Chapel to choose a successor.
An Augustinian friar, Prevost spent much of his ministry in Peru before Pope Francis brought him to Rome in 2023 as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, the Vatican office that vets episcopal appointments. His blend of pastoral experience and curial responsibility was seen as a key factor in the deliberations.
As Pope Leo XIV begins forming his Curia and setting priorities, observers will watch how the first U.S. pontiff balances his American origins with decades of service in Latin America and the Vatican bureaucracy.
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