For the first time ever, an American has been elected to serve as Pope of the Catholic Church.
Pope Leo XIV has elected today on the third ballot by 133 Cardinals in Vatican City. Pope Leo was born in the south suburbs of Chicago and was ordained a priest in 1983.
Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, a native of Chicago, has been selected as the first American-born pope, and he will be known as Leo XIV.
He has spent most of his career outside of the United States, ministering to the dispossessed and marginalized.
The “Latin Yankee,” as he is known in Rome, worked 20 years in Peru. His commitment there echoes the legacy of Pope Francis. Yet his successor is considered more middle of the road, pragmatic as well as cautious.
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New Pope is first from America
May 8, 2025
REUTERS/via SNO Sites/Remo Casilli
Newly elected Pope Leo XIV, Cardinal Robert Prevost of the Unites States delivers the “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and to the world) message from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, at the Vatican, May 8, 2025. REUTERS/Remo Casilli
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