Age 69 Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost has been elected as the 267th Pope
In the 2,000-year history of the Roman Catholic Church, he was the first American to take on the position. The first thing everyone wanted to know was why he had taken the name Pope Leo XIV.
In his blog, Sean Patrick O’Malley, the former Archbishop of Boston, stated that the new Pope Robert Prevost chose the name in remembrance of Pope Leo XIII, who presided over the church from 1878 until 1903. He was well-known for advocating for social justice and actively participating in solving practical problems.
Who is Pope Leo XIV aka Robert Francis Prevost, biography, age, family, parents, brothers ethnicity, nationality, education and net worth
69-year-old Pope Robert Prevost was born on September 14, 1955 in Chicago, USA. According to a Vatican news release, his mother, Mildred Martinez, is of Spanish ancestry, and his father, Louis Marius Prevost, is of French and Italian ancestry.
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, his mother, Mildred, was a librarian, and his father who was a navy veteran of world war 2 was also an educator. John Joseph Prevos and Louis Martín Prevos are his two brothers.
Habemus Papam! We have a Pope!
The Cardinals gathered in the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel have elected Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost as the 267th Pope, who took the name Pope Leo XIV. pic.twitter.com/7COawsKvWu
— Vatican News (@VaticanNews) May 8, 2025
Prior to receiving his doctorate in canon law from the Pontifical College of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome, he studied at the Villanova University in Pennsylvania and Catholic Theological Union in Chicago.
He completed his secondary studies at the minor seminary of the Order of St. Augustine in 1973 and studied first at the Minor Seminary of the Augustinian Fathers and then at Villanova University in Pennsylvania, where in 1977 he earned a Degree in Mathematics and also studied Philosophy.
In the same year, Prevost entered the novitiate of the Order of Saint Augustine (O.S.A.) in Saint Louis, in the Province of Our Lady of Good Counsel of Chicago, and made his first profession on September 2, 1978 and on August 29, 1981, he made his solemn vows.
He received his theological education at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago and at the age of 27, he was sent by his superiors to Rome to study Canon Law at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum).
Born in Chicago to parents of Spanish and Franco-Italian descent, Prevost served as an altar boy and was ordained in 1982 and although he moved to Peru three years later, he returned regularly to the US to serve as a pastor and a prior in his home city.
While Robert Francis Prevost’s current net worth is unknown, it is said that he received a monthly salary of between 4,000 and 5,000 euros while serving as the pope.
Pope Robert Prevost career
As chancellor of the Territorial Prelature of Chulucanas (1985–1986), the Prevost joined the Augustinian mission in Peru in 1985. Prevost was chosen prior provincial of the Chicago-based Province of Our Mother of Good Counsel of the Order of St. Augustine in 1998, and he took office on March 8, 1999. Following the imposition of more stringent regulations by US bishops, Ray was moved in 2002.
Prevost held the positions of first councillor and provincial vicar of the Province of Our Mother of Good Counsel from 2013 to 2014, as well as director of formation at the Convent of St. Augustine in Chicago. Prevost became a member of the Congregation for the Clergy on July 13, 2019.
The first American Pope, Pope Leo XIV, is Robert Prevost from Chicago, and he gets emotional on the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican.
He is 69 years old and is viewed as a centrist, but is progressive on some key social issues.
Like Pope Francis who championed… pic.twitter.com/SqXqIk0Vdo
— Art Candee 🍿🥤 (@ArtCandee) May 8, 2025
He was appointed titular bishop of the Suburbicarian Diocese of Albano on February 6, 2025, after Pope Francis elevated him to the rank of cardinal-bishop. In May 2023, Prevost celebrated Mass in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, and attended sessions of the Latin American and Caribbean Episcopal Council.