The white smoke has billowed, and the Catholic church has a new pope – and he’s American.Cardinals at the Vatican elected the Chicago-born Robert Prevost on Thursday to lead the church, succeeding Pope Francis, who died last month.
Prevost took the name Leo XIV as he became the first pontiff from the United States.
“Peace be with you,” were his first words as pope.
Here is a look at the new pope and his journey from the US Midwest to the top of the church of 1.4 billion people.
What is Pope Leo’s background?
Born in Chicago in 1955 to parents of French, Italian and Spanish descent, Leo’s father was a school principal and his mother had degrees in library science and education and was deeply involved in the St Mary of the Assumption that the family attended.
Last week, the Chicago Sun-Times cited Leo’s friends and fellow church goers as saying that he was dedicated to his faith and path to priesthood from a young age.
Leo graduated with a degree in mathematics from the University of Villanova in Pennsylvania in 1977. He also studied religion at the Catholic Theological Union of Chicago. Advertisement
In 1982, he received a doctorate in church law from the Pontifical University of St Thomas Aquinas in Rome before being sent to serve in a Catholic mission in Peru.
In the subsequent decades, he rose through the ranks of the church as he bounced between Chicago and Peru.
Pope Francis made him the Bishop of Chiclayo, Peru, in 2015 before giving him greater responsibilities within the church. That same year, Prevost also became a Peruvian citizen.
In 2023, he became prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, a key Catholic administrative body, based in Rome.
What is an Augustinian?
In his first public remarks …