The new pope is revealed as Robert Prevost of the US, the first American pontiff in history. He’ll be known as Pope Leo XIV.

As a result, Prevost enjoyed a prominence going into the conclave that few other cardinals had.

One strike against him, however, was his nationality. There has long been a taboo against a US pope, given the geopolitical power already wielded by the United States in the secular sphere.

US Cardinal Robert Prevost was elected the new leader of the Roman Catholic Church on Thursday, taking the name Pope Leo XIV. After serving as missionary and archbishop in Peru, Prevost presided over one of the most revolutionary reforms of Pope Francis’s pontificate, for the first time appointing women to an influential body involved in the nomination of bishops.

Robert Francis Prevost served as the prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops.
File photo: Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost has been elected the first American pope in history. © Riccardo De Luca, AP
Prevost, 69, has spent most of his career as a missionary in Peru and became a cardinal only in 2023. He has given few media interviews and is a relative unknown on the global stage.

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The late Pope Francis brought him 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 enjoyed a prominence going into the conclave that few other cardinals had.

One strike against him, however, was his nationality. There has long been a taboo against a US 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. Italian newspaper La Repubblica called him “the least American of the Americans” for his soft-spoken touch.

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Live: Cardinal Robert Prevost elected first American pope in history

Prevost was also twice elected prior general, or top leader, of the Augustinian religious order, founded in the 13th century by St. Augustine. The order operates in 50 countries and has a special focus on a life of community and equality among its members.

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.

He remained in that position, acquiring Peruvian citizenship in 2015, until the late pontiff brought him to Rome in 2023 to assume the presidency of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.