Habemus Papam! We have a Pope! This has certainly been an exciting – and, indeed, historic – time for the Universal Church as 132 cardinals from 70 countries around the world started meeting in the Sistine Chapel to elect our next pope on 7 May. And, after just four ballots, so many of us watched excitedly as white smoke billowed from the chimney above the Sistine Chapel just after noon on the second day. I don’t know about you, but I certainly did not expect the results: the first pope from the United States of America and the first pope to be selected from the Order of St. Augustine. The Holy Spirit was truly at work during the Conclave! As we read in Sacred Scriptures, the Spirit “blows where it wills!” And, so we welcome Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV.
Pope Leo XIV’s background has prepared him well for this immensely demanding new role in the Church. As you have probably already learned, he was born in 1955 in Chicago and received his Bachelor’s Degree in mathematics from Villanova University in 1977. He also earned a Doctor of Canon Law degree from the Pontifical College of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome in 1984.
Pope Leo XIV, who was ordained a priest for the Order of St. Augustine in 1982, served in various roles – as a parish priest, pastor, diocesan official, seminary teacher and administrator in Chicago and Peru – until he became the Prior General of the Augustinian Order 2001. I was privileged to meet the then Fr. Robert Prevost when I was working in Rome. The Augustinian headquarters in Rome are located across the street from the headquarters for the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, where I worked as the chancellor from 2008 until 2011. I was invited several times to celebrate Mass and have dinner at the Augustinian headquarters; I had the occasion to meet Bob there. In 2014, Fr. Prevost was ordained a bishop and sent back to Peru as Apostolic Administrator and then bishop of the Diocese of Chiclayo. In 2023, he was elevated to the College of Cardinals and appointed Prefect of the Dicastry for Bishops as well as President of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America. These two positions made him a familiar figure to the cardinal electors and, as we have seen, a quick choice as our 267th pope. His vast experience in various roles in the Church will serve him well as he begins to serve the Universal Church. Let us join in prayer that Pope Leo XIV may have the strength and wisdom to guide the Church – which means all of us – ever more faithfully according to God’s plans so that God’s kingdom may come!