Who is Robert Prevost, the new Pope Leo XIV?

Even before his name was announced on the balcony of the Sint -Peter’s Basilica, the crowds sang “Viva Il Papa” – Long Live the Pope.

Robert Prevost, 69, becomes the 267th resident of the throne of St. Peter and he will be known as Leo XIV.

He will be the first American to play the role of Pope, although he is considered a Cardinal from Latin -America because of the many years he spent as a missionary in Peru, before he became an archbishop there.

He has a Peruvian nationality and is happy to be remembered as a figure who worked with marginalized communities and helped build bridges in the local church.

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Prevost was born in Chicago in 1955 and served as an altar boy and was ordained as a priest in 1982.

In his first words as Pope, Leo XIV spoke with great pleasure about his predecessor Francis.

“We still hear the weak but always brave voice of Pope Francis who blessed us,” he said.

“United and hand in hand with God, let’s move forward together,” he told the cheering crowd.

He told the crowd who listened in St. Peter that he was a member of the Augustinian Order. He was 30 when he moved to Peru as part of an Augustinian mission.

Francis made him bishop of Chiclayo in Peru for a year after he became a pope.

He is known to cardinals around the world because of his controversial role of prefect of the Dicastery for bishops.

Because 80% of the cardinals who participated in the conclave were appointed by Francis, it is not so surprising that someone was chosen as prevosted.

He will be seen as a figure who preferred the continuity of Francis’s reforms in the Catholic Church.

Although he is an American and will be fully aware of the division within the Catholic Church, his Latin -American background also represents continuity after a Pope who came from Argentina.

Although during his time as Archbishop in Peru he did not escape the scandals of sexual abuse that the church clouded, his diocese of Fervent denied that he had been involved in an attempt to cover.

Before the conclave, Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni said that during the meetings of the College of Cardinals in the days before the conclave, the need emphasized the need for a Pope with “a prophetic mind that is able to lead a church that does not close on its own but knows how she marked a world by despair”.