VATICAN CITY – The holy white smoke from the Vatican has risen, and Robert Francis Prevost, aka Pope Leo XIV, 69, has emerged as the 267th leader of the Roman Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State.
According to his bio, Pope Leo was born in Chicago in 1955 and ordained in 1982. He served as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America since 2023. He previously served as Bishop of Chiclayo in Peru from 2015 to 2023, and was prior general of the Order of Saint Augustine from 2001 to 2013. In 2015 Cardinal Prevost became a naturalized citizen of Peru as confirmed by Peru’s National Civil Registry. He was made a cardinal in 2023.