Pope Leo XIII
May 9, 2025
Robert ‘Rob, Bob’ Francis Prevost (1955-) was the third son of a second generation Sicilian-French father and a New Orleans Creole, Haitian Hispaniola mother whose family moved to Dolton in Chicago’s suburban South Side. His paternal grandparents changed their name from Riggitano to Prevost, his maternal grandmother’s maiden name. The grandfather was a Sicilian immigrant who taught language and music; the grandmother a third order Carmelite.
A World War II veteran, his father became a catechist. Eight years senior to her husband, his mother worked as a Catholic School Librarian, and was an accomplished singer. Both parents graduated from DePaul University in Chicago, his mother held a masters degree.
Rob emulated a priest, praying in Latin at age six. Two neighbors prophesied that he would be the first American pope. A choir and altar boy, Bob enrolled in a Seminary High School. He attained a BS in Mathematics from Villanova University in Philadelphia, a masters in divinity from the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, and a doctorate of Canon Law from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome. Along the way, he served as an Augustinian novice in St. Louis and was ordained in Rome.
Father Bob became a Peruvian missionary in 1985, serving as an Augustinian vocational and missions director in Illinois in 1987 before returning to Peru to recruit and teach canon law to Peruvian priests. Prevost protested political corruption and violence, and publicly opposed the human rights violations of Marxist guerrillas, often travelling on horseback or barefoot.
Father Prevost became an Augustinian prior provincial in 1999, Prior General of the Augustinian Order in 2001, Bishop of Chicalyo and a naturalized Peruvian citizen in 2014, Prefect of the Dicastery of Bishops, serving on six others, Cardinal Deacon in 2023, and Cardinal-Priest and Pope Leo XIV in 2025.
A humble scholar, Pope Leo XIV is the first Pope from: an English-speaking country since Adrian IV (1154-9), North America, and the Augustinian order. He is also the first White Sox fan to become Pope, and a tennis player.
Pope Leo is the ultimate international man: white, black, Latino, Native American (likely Asian immigrants); fluent in English, Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese and Latin; a world traveler; American, Peruvian, and Vatican citizen; a listener and servant leader; and, a man of peace, simplicity, unity, clarity, collaboration, and the social Gospel. His name is prophetic, Prevost is French for provost, from the Latin Praepositus, one placed in charge.