Pope Leo XIV

• 1. Introduction

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  Before the 2025 conclave, the future Pope Leo XIV, Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, explained his chances to a friend by text message. "I'm an American, I can't be elected," he wrote. He was elected anyway. This documentary follows a path that few observers would have predicted. How did a Chicago boy who studied mathematics rise to lead the Catholic Church? What did he learn from years of mission work in Peru and from running a religious order from Rome? And why did he choose the name Leo, at a moment when artificial intelligence is reshaping daily life?

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• 2. South Side Roots

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  Robert Francis Prevost was born on the 14th of September 1955 at Mercy Hospital, in the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago. His family was of French, Italian, Spanish and Louisiana Creole descent. His father, Louis Marius Prevost, was a Navy veteran of World War II and later became superintendent of Brookwood School District 167 in Glenwood, Illinois. His mother, Mildred Agnes Prevost, came from a mixed-race Black Creole family from Louisiana and worked as an educator and librarian, including at Mendel Catholic High School.

  Dolton, Illinois, a suburb bordering the far South Side, was the family's home, and the village later bought the house after he became pope. Relatives called him Rob, while friends in adulthood called him Bob. His parish was St. Mary of the Assumption in nearby Riverdale. His father taught the faith as a catechist, and his mother sang in the choir, belonged to the Rosary and Altar Society and attended daily Mass.

  Leo has said of his parents, "My parents prayed the Rosary together their whole lives every day." At 6:30 each morning, his mother called her sons to Mass before school and told them Jesus "is your best friend." The boy and his two older brothers, Louis Martín and John Joseph, would play-act the Mass at home.

  By the eighth grade, Prevost had chosen the Augustinians. Priests from several religious orders had visited the family home, and he later said the Salesians of Don Bosco "came in second place."

  From 1969 to 1973 he attended St. Augustine Seminary High School, a minor seminary near Saugatuck, Michigan. He edited the yearbook, captained the bowling team, headed the speech and debate team and served as secretary of the student council. Only 13 students in his class graduated, and he was one of them. His brother John recalled that Rob was hardly ever at home from the end of eighth grade, and the brothers reconnected only when leave allowed it in adulthood.

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• 3. Numbers, Vows, Canon Law

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  Tolentine College in Olympia Fields, Illinois, was where Prevost planned to study in 1973, but the Augustinian seminary closed that same year. He enrolled instead at Villanova University near Philadelphia, another Augustinian school. There he earned a bachelor of science in mathematics in 1977. He took elective courses in Hebrew and Latin, read the writings of Augustine of Hippo, and discussed the theologian Karl Rahner with fellow students.

  At Villanova he was a founding member of Villanovans for Life, the oldest collegiate pro-life club in the United States. He lived in the Augustinian friary and was remembered as "particularly committed... to missionary work" and as "the most community minded" of the students. He also worked as a cemetery groundskeeper at Saint Denis Catholic Church in Havertown, Pennsylvania.

  On the 1st of September 1977, he entered the novitiate of the Order of Saint Augustine's Province of Our Mother of Good Counsel in St. Louis, Missouri. He lived for a year at Immaculate Conception Church there. In the summer of 1978 he spent three months in clinical pastoral education at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis. He took his first vows on the 2nd of September 1978 and his solemn vows on the 29th of August 1981.

  Hyde Park in Chicago, where his father had grown up, drew him back for a Master of Divinity at Catholic Theological Union, completed in 1982. During those studies he taught physics and math at St. Rita of Cascia High School. He chose Sister Lyn Osiek as his spiritual director, and she described him as "calm and steady... a person who was at peace with himself."

  Thomas Gumbleton ordained him a deacon on the 10th of September 1981 in Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan. Archbishop Jean Jadot ordained him a priest on the 19th of June 1982, in the Chapel of Saint Monica of the Augustinians in Rome.

  Rome then gave him a Licentiate of Canon Law in 1984 and a Doctor of Canon Law in 1987, both from the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas. In those years he learned Italian. In October 1983 he joined protests against the placement of BGM-109G Gryphon missiles at Comiso Airport, part of demonstrations across Europe.

  His doctoral thesis, The Office and Authority of the Local Prior in the Order of Saint Augustine, was published in 1987. Commentators read it as a window into his theology of leadership. In it he argued that authority is received from above, so that "the substance of the office of the superior is to obey." He also described service as "listening to what the Spirit is saying in His people." That emphasis on listening to the Spirit returns in his speeches as a cardinal decades later.

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• 4. Mission and Command

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  In 1985, Prevost joined the Augustinian mission in Peru as chancellor of the Territorial Prelature of Chulucanas and as an aide to bishop John McNabb. Severe El Niño rainstorms dominated his first year, and much of his work went into disaster relief. In 1987, after defending his thesis, he returned to Illinois as vocation director and missions director of his province. He also worked with the faculty of the Augustinian Novitiate in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. In 1988 he went back to Peru.

  Trujillo became his base for a decade, where he headed the Augustinian seminary. He also taught canon law at the diocesan seminary, served as prefect of studies, acted as a judge in the regional ecclesiastical court and worked in parish ministry on the city's outskirts. From 1992 to 1999 he was also parochial administrator of Our Lady of Montserrat. He helped the order recruit Peruvians as priests and leaders, and he mastered Spanish. There he met and appreciated Gustavo Gutierrez, a Dominican priest and pioneer of liberation theology.

  The Fujimorato era, under President Alberto Fujimori, drew his open criticism. He gave special emphasis to the victims of the Peruvian Army, particularly the Colina Group, and to political corruption. He was also described as a defender of the human rights of people in the Norte Chico region against the Shining Path, a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist guerrilla organization. He organized support for Venezuelan refugees in Peru, despite discrimination against them. In 2017, he criticized President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski's pardon of Fujimori and called on Fujimori "to personally apologize for some of the great injustices that were committed."

  In 1998, the Augustinians elected Prevost Prior Provincial of the Province of Our Mother of Good Counsel, based in Chicago. He took up the role on the 8th of March 1999. In 2000, he allowed James Ray, a priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago, to live under supervision at St. John Stone Friary in Chicago. Ray had been suspended from public ministry since 1991 because of credible accusations that he had sexually abused minors.

  The archdiocese requested the placement, and the friary stood close to St. Thomas School. The Augustinians said the location was chosen because of the supervision Ray would receive. After American bishops adopted stricter rules in the Dallas Charter, Ray moved to other housing in 2002. The placement became the subject of reporting in 2021.

  In 2001 the order elected Prevost prior general, and he served two consecutive six-year terms until 2013. He lived in Rome but traveled constantly to the order's provinces and missions. In 2002 the order's Rule and Constitutions was issued under his authority.

  Buenos Aires was the setting in 2004 when he first met Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, the future Pope Francis. Their early encounters reportedly did not go well, and Prevost has declined to say what they disagreed about. After Bergoglio became pope in 2013, Prevost thought he would never be made a bishop. The two reconciled before Prevost left Rome for Chicago in 2013. From 2013 to 2014 he directed formation at the Convent of St. Augustine in Chicago and served as first councilor and provincial vicar of his province.

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• 5. Bishop of Chiclayo

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  In 2014, Archbishop James Green, the Apostolic Nuncio to Peru, suggested to Pope Francis that Prevost might serve as bishop of Chiclayo in northern Peru. On the 3rd of November 2014, Francis appointed him apostolic administrator of Chiclayo and titular bishop of Sufar. Green consecrated him on the 12th of December 2014 at St. Mary Cathedral. A 1980 agreement between the Holy See and Peru required him to become a naturalized Peruvian citizen before taking the post. On the 26th of September 2015, he was named Bishop of Chiclayo.

  Opus Dei priests had staffed the conservative diocese for many decades. Prevost gave several of them senior positions, worked closely with them and lived with them in the same residence. He called them hardworking and obedient.

  He was seen as very faithful to the Church's social doctrine and organized relief efforts during calamities. He helped victims of trafficking and sex workers learn new skills and trades and invited them to spiritual retreats. He also created a diocesan Commission on Integral Ecology and appointed a woman to lead it.

  Lauds at the cathedral each morning and the rosary at noon framed his days. He celebrated daily Mass at 8 p.m. to ensure a clear mind. People called him a good listener with a disciplined prayer life. He once corrected a priest who heard confessions without wearing an alb. Even when summer temperatures rose above 85 degrees Fahrenheit, about 29 Celsius, he wore full vestments for Mass. The cathedral pastor called him a "say the black, do the red" priest, a reference to the red instructions in the Roman Missal.

  In 2022, alleged victims of abuse in 2007 by the priests Ricardo Yesquén Paiva and Eleuterio Vásquez Gonzáles said the Diocese of Chiclayo had failed to investigate their cases. Prevost has been accused of covering up abuse there. The diocese said he followed proper procedures. It said he met Ana María Quispe and her sisters in April 2022, encouraged them to begin a civil action and opened a canonical investigation. The results went to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.

  The sisters said in 2024 that no full penal canonical investigation had occurred. An investigation by América Televisión concluded that the church's investigation had not been thorough. The diocese called the program's allegations false. It said the accused priest never admitted the accusations, that Prevost barred him from priestly ministry and that he moved to his family's home. The Vatican gave a temporary decision of dismissal, and the diocese later reopened the case and sent it again. The diocese says the case remains open.

  Speaking to the Peruvian newspaper La República, Prevost said: "If you are a victim of sexual abuse by a priest, report it. We reject cover-ups and secrecy; that causes a lot of harm." The journalist Salinas, who exposed abuse in the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, has argued that Prevost always supported victims and was among the most reliable clerical authorities in Peru. Salinas wrote that clerics linked to the Sodalitium tried to defame Prevost in retaliation for his role in the group's dissolution by Pope Francis.

  On the 13th of July 2019, Prevost became a member of the Congregation for the Clergy. On the 15th of April 2020 he became apostolic administrator of Callao, and on the 21st of November 2020 he joined the Congregation for Bishops. He sat on the permanent council of the Peruvian episcopal conference from 2018 to 2020 and in 2019 was elected president of its Commission for Education and Culture. Cardinal Joseph Tobin called his place on that council "extraordinary for someone who was not born in Peru." On the 1st of March 2021, Prevost had a private audience with Pope Francis, which sparked speculation about a new role in Chicago or Rome.

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• 6. From Cardinal to Pope

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  On the 30th of January 2023, Pope Francis appointed Prevost prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops. Prevost would have preferred to stay in Peru but accepted. On the 30th of September 2023, Francis made him a cardinal deacon, assigned to the deaconry of Santa Monica degli Agostiniani. As prefect he evaluated and recommended candidates for bishop around the world, which raised his visibility. In October 2023 he was named to seven more dicasteries, and on the 6th of February 2025 he became Cardinal Bishop of Albano.

  Before the conclave, observers treated Prevost as a dark horse next to more prominent contenders. He was seen as an ally of Francis and a possible compromise candidate, and supporters called him a "dignified middle of the road." His American nationality was regarded as a stumbling block, reflecting unease about adding to the geopolitical power of the United States.

  He was elected on the 8th of May 2025, the second day of the conclave, on the fourth ballot. White smoke rose from the Sistine Chapel at 18:07 CEST. Cardinal Dominique Mamberti then announced Pope Leo XIV from the central loggia of St. Peter's Basilica with the Latin proclamation Habemus papam. According to Italian law enforcement, up to 150,000 people filled the square.

  Traditional papal vestments set Leo apart from Francis on that balcony. He wore the stole and mozzetta that Francis had not worn when greeting the world. His pectoral cross, worn during the conclave, held relics of Saint Augustine and his mother Saint Monica. He spoke in Italian, urging peace and dialogue, thanking Francis and quoting Augustine. He greeted his former diocese of Chiclayo in Spanish, calling it "my beloved diocese." He then gave his first Urbi et Orbi blessing in Latin.

  The 267th pope on the official count, Leo XIV is the first pope from the Order of Saint Augustine. Six earlier popes belonged to other orders following the Augustinian Rule, the last being Eugene IV, who reigned from 1431 to 1447. He is the second pope from the Americas and holds both American and Peruvian citizenship. He is the second native English speaker after Adrian IV, who would have spoken Middle English. He is also the first pope born after World War II, and the first from the Baby Boomer generation.

  On the 9th of May, Leo celebrated his first Mass as pope in the Sistine Chapel and preached against the lack of faith in the world. He moved into the papal apartments in the Apostolic Palace rather than the Domus Sanctae Marthae, where Francis had lived. His inauguration Mass on the 18th of May in St. Peter's Square included the pallium and the Ring of the Fisherman. On the 25th of May he was installed as Bishop of Rome at the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran.

  On the 5th of June 2025, Leo nominated Joseph Lin Yuntuan as auxiliary bishop of Fuzhou, and Chinese authorities approved him on the 11th of June under the 2018 agreement with the Holy See. On the 5th of July he appointed the French archbishop Thibault Verny to lead the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. The next day he revived the papal summer residence at Castel Gandolfo, which Francis had dropped. On the 7th of September he canonized Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati. On the 21st of November he signed an amendment allowing a woman to head the Pontifical Commission for the Vatican City State.

  Turkey and Lebanon were the destinations of his first apostolic journey, from the 27th of November to the 2nd of December 2025. In Turkey he joined Patriarch Bartholomew to mark the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea and visited the Blue Mosque. In Lebanon he prayed at the site of the 2020 Beirut explosion and at the tomb of Charbel Makhlouf.

  A one-day visit to Monaco on the 17th of January 2026 was his second trip. His third, from the 13th to the 23rd of April 2026, was his first to Africa. It began with the first papal visit ever to Algeria, where he went to Annaba for what he called a "spiritual homecoming" to the land of Augustine. He went on to Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea, denouncing corruption in Cameroon and challenging an "economy of exclusion" in Equatorial Guinea. The Holy See later announced a visit to Spain from the 6th to the 12th of June 2026, including a meeting with migrants in the Canary Islands, and a four-day visit to France in late September 2026 that would include UNESCO headquarters in Paris.

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• 7. Why Leo

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  Leo XIII, who wrote the encyclical Rerum novarum, is the pope whose name Prevost chose. That letter established modern Catholic social teaching and promoted labor rights. Matteo Bruni, director of the Holy See Press Office, described the choice as a reference to the lives of men and women and their work, even in an age marked by artificial intelligence. Cardinal Fernando Chomalí of Chile said Leo told him the name came from concern about a cultural shift he compared to a Copernican Revolution, involving artificial intelligence and robotics. Leo XIV confirmed the link to Leo XIII in October 2025, in an address to the World Meeting of Popular Movements.

  His first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, takes up those concerns at length. In it he wrote that "artificial intelligences do not undergo experiences, do not possess a body, do not feel joy or pain." Leo calls the technology an "anthropological challenge" and warns that it can interfere with information ecosystems. He sees a deeper risk in its imitation of human faces and voices, which encroaches "upon the deepest level of communication, that of human relationships." He refused to sanction an artificial replica of himself meant to answer questions about the faith, saying "If there's anybody who should not be represented by an avatar, I would say the pope is high on the list." He also asked the clergy of the Diocese of Rome to resist preparing homilies with artificial intelligence.

  Ukraine drew his condemnation early. He called the Russian invasion a "senseless war" and appealed to Russian leaders to end it. In one of his first major speeches he called for a ceasefire in Gaza, and after the Israeli strikes on Iran in June 2025 he urged both sides to act with "reason." He has also called for a ceasefire and humanitarian aid after the El Fasher massacre in Sudan. In April 2026, during the 2026 Iran war, he called Donald Trump's threats against Iranian civilization and infrastructure "truly unacceptable." Trump criticized him publicly and called him too liberal. Leo answered, "I have no fear of the Trump administration."

  His Pentecost homily soon after his election criticized the "exclusionary mindset" of nationalist movements. He said the church needed to "open the borders between peoples and break down the barriers between class and race." He also defended the right of nations to decide who enters, and when, and he pointed to courts and a judicial system for those in the United States illegally. In autumn 2025 he told journalists that opposing abortion while agreeing with inhuman treatment of immigrants in the United States raised the question of whether that is pro-life. In November 2025 he asked that detainees have access to clergy so their "spiritual rights" are upheld.

  He has opposed abortion, euthanasia and the death penalty, and he condemned femicide as the fruit of "an unhealthy desire for domination." On climate, he said in a November 2024 seminar that "dominion over nature" should not be "tyrannical," and soon after his election he called Laudato si' "even more relevant today."

  Within the church, observers describe him as a moderate. La Repubblica called him a "cosmopolitan and shy figure" appreciated by both conservatives and progressives. He calls the teachings of the Second Vatican Council the "guiding star" of the church, and his episcopal motto is In illo Uno unum, meaning "In the One, we are one." In September 2025 he allowed the Tridentine Mass in St. Peter's Basilica, the first such permission since Traditionis custodes in 2021. In January 2026 he said he would like to meet annually with the College of Cardinals as a group of advisors.

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• 8. Habits and Honors

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  Spanish, Italian, French and Portuguese join his native English, along with some German, and he can read Latin. In Peru he learned a little of one of the Quechuan languages. He calls himself "quite the amateur tennis player" and still plays at Castel Gandolfo. He is the first pope to write his own emails and to wear a smartwatch, an Apple Watch. He regularly plays Wordle and Words with Friends with his brothers.

  Chicago sports remain a loyalty. He is a lifelong fan of the Chicago White Sox and attended Game 1 of the 2005 World Series at US Cellular Field. After his papal inauguration, Vice President JD Vance gave him a custom Chicago Bears jersey, which Leo called a "good choice." He also supports Villanova athletics, especially the Villanova Wildcats men's basketball team. His favorite movies are It's a Wonderful Life, The Sound of Music, Ordinary People and Life Is Beautiful.

  Driving has been a lifelong pleasure. As a teenager he enjoyed driving recreationally, and as an adult he often chose long drives over flights, from Philadelphia to Chicago, from Brisbane to Sydney and from Chiclayo to Lima. As bishop in Chiclayo he repaired cars himself.

  Beyond Augustine, the book that most shaped his personal spirituality is The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence. It is about becoming aware of God in everyday life and conversing with him continually.

  Villanova awarded him an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree in 2014. Time magazine named him among the 100 most influential people in artificial intelligence in 2025, and among its 100 Most Influential People of 2026. On the 23rd of October 2025, King Charles III appointed him an Honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath, during the King's state visit to the Holy See. At the same event Leo accepted the title of Papal Confrater of St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle.

  In 2026, scientists named a pyralid moth, Pyralis papaleonei, in his honor, citing him as a strong advocate of climate and environmental protection. Its genus already includes species whose names refer to high offices, among them Pyralis regalis, Pyralis imperialis, Pyralis princeps and Pyralis cardinalis.

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