Five things to know about Pope Leo XIV

Originally published in Christian Today

Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost was named the 267th pope of the Roman Catholic Church yesterday. He chose the name Pope Leo XIV.

His ascension to the papacy comes 17 days after the death of Pope Francis. At age 69, he is younger than the two most recent popes when they assumed the position but significantly older than Pope St. John Paul II when he became Bishop of Rome at the age of 58.

Here are five things to know about Prevost, specifically his background and his views.

1. He is the first American pope

Perhaps the most notable aspect of Prevost’s ascension to the papacy is his background.

Pope Leo XIV is the first pope from the United States of America in history. According to the College of Cardinals Report, he was born in Chicago, Illinois, on September 14 1955. He graduated from Villanova University in 1977 with a bachelor of science in mathematics. Five years later, he graduated from the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago with a master of divinity. That same year, he was ordained a priest.

From 1999 to 2001, he served as a provincial in the Augustinian Province in Chicago. The website for the Midwest Augustinians still lists Prevost as one of its solemnly professed priors. The mission statement for the province defines the religious order as part of the “worldwide Order of Saint Augustine in the Roman Catholic Church” that searches “for God in community by sharing our lives, goods and spiritual journey with each other and the people of God”.

“In harmony of mind and heart on our journey toward God, our experience of common life flows into and shapes our ministries,” the mission statement continues. “We continue to serve the Church in schools, parishes and missions as we seek to discern new paths of service to which God calls us.”

From 2001 to 2013, Prevost served as the prior general of the Order of St. Augustine, acting as “the head of the Order and its supreme authority”.

2. He has spent considerable time in Latin America

While Leo XIV was born in the United States, he spent much of his service to the church abroad.He received a licentiate in canon law from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome, Italy, in 1984 and a doctorate in canon law from the same institution three years later. From 1985 to 1986, Leo XIV engaged in ministry work in Chulucanas, Peru. From 1988 to 1998, he served as a community prior, formation director and professor in Trujillo, Peru. After returning to the U.S. for over a decade, the pope moved back to Peru in 2014, where he became the apostolic administrator of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Chiclayo, Peru. He was appointed bishop of the diocese a year later. He served in that position for eight years. Even after his elevation to a cardinal in 2023 and appointment as the prefect of the Dicastery of Bishops, Leo XIV continued to retain close ties to Latin America. That same year, he was appointed president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.

3. He opposes female deacons, has mixed views on LGBT issues

While the College of Cardinals Report defines most of Leo XIV’s positions on the top issues facing the Catholic Church as ambiguous, it notes that he has expressed opposition to ordaining female deacons and has an unclear position on blessings for same-sex couples.

In remarks delivered in 2023, Prevost stated that “‘clericalising women’ doesn’t necessarily solve a problem, it might make a new problem”.

In a 2012 address, then-Bishop Prevost expressed concern about the promotion of “sympathy for beliefs and practices that contradict the Gospel” in Western culture. He specifically cited the “homosexual lifestyle” and “alternative families made up of same-sex partners and their adopted children” as examples.

After Pope Francis authorised priests to bless same-sex couples in 2023, the future pope defended African bishops who pushed back against the move.

“It wasn’t rejecting the teaching authority of Rome, it was saying that our cultural situation is such that the application of this document is just not going to work,” he said in a press briefing last year.

“You have to remember there are still places in Africa that apply the death penalty, for example, for people who are living in a homosexual relationship. … So, we’re in very different worlds,” he added. “Each episcopal conference needs to have a certain authority, in terms of saying, ‘how are we going to understand this in the concrete reality in which we’re living?’”

4. He has expressed concern about Trump’s immigration policies

Sean Davis of The Federalist shared screenshots of Pope Leo XIV’s X account, which he believed indicated his support for progressive political ideology.

One screenshot showed Prevost sharing an article from the progressive publication National Catholic Reporter titled JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for others.

The article reacted to Vice President J D Vance’s declaration that “There is a Christian concept that you love your family and then you love your neighbour, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens, and then after that, prioritise the rest of the world.” Vance maintained: “A lot of the far left has completely inverted that.”

Another screenshot from a 2018 repost shows Prevost sharing a message from Cardinal Blase Cupich of the Archdiocese of Chicago, considered one of the more progressive church leaders in the US, condemning the Trump administration’s policies separating illegal immigrant children from their parents or guardians.

A third screenshot shows Prevost reposting multiple messages in favour of illegal immigrants brought to the US as children receiving protections from deportation, a programme that President Donald Trump repealed in his first term but was overruled by the US Supreme Court.

5. He has faced allegations of not responding adequately to sex abuse allegations

As the possibility of Prevost becoming pope began to emerge last week, the publication InfoVaticana reported on the contents of a March 2024 letter to Pope Francis.

The correspondence maintains that during his tenure as Bishop of Chiclayo, the future pope “took no action” against a priest who allegedly sexually assaulted three minors. The article also maintained that the Diocese of Chiclayo paid $150 000 (R2.73 million) to abuse victims who accused Cardinal Prevost of covering up the abuse.

The diocese strongly defended Prevost’s handling of the abuse allegations, insisting that he reached out to the victims and opened a canonical investigation into the alleged acts of abuse.

Prevost also faced criticism after reports surfaced alleging that a priest convicted of engaging in sexual misconduct with minors was allowed to stay at a priory located near an elementary school during his tenure as provincial in the Augustinian Province in Chicago.

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