The new Bishop of Rome: Missionary and son of Saint Augustine

Rome (Agenzia Fides) - "I am a son of Saint Augustine," said Pope Leo XIV in his first address from the central Loggia of St. Peter's Basilica, to the people gathered in St. Peter's Square following his election as the 267th Bishop of Rome. In other passages, he recalled that "together we seek how to be a missionary Church, always anxious to work fearlessly, proclaiming the Gospel and evangelizing as men and women faithful to Jesus Christ." "We are disciples of Christ. Christ precedes us. The world needs His light," said the new Pope.

In the few personal references, the new successor of Peter, in his first brief public address, hinted at two essential characteristics that have marked his path: his belonging to the spiritual family of Saint Augustine, his belonging to the "Church in a state of mission," which is also expressed in the greeting he delivered in Spanish to his "querida diocesis" of Chiclayo, "where a faithful people accompanied their bishop." Two characteristics that have become interwoven in the life story of Pope Leo and that the entire Church of Rome can gradually recognize on the path begun with its new Bishop.

A missionary son of Saint Augustine

Robert Francis Prevost was born on September 14, 1955, in Chicago, Illinois, USA, and entered the novitiate of the Order of Saint Augustine in the Province of Our Lady of Good Counsel in St. Louis at the age of 22. He made his solemn profession on August 29, 1981. He studied at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago and graduated in Theology. At the age of 27, the Order sent him to Rome to study Canon Law at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, of the Dominican Fathers. He was ordained a priest on June 19, 1982, in Rome by Belgian Archbishop Jean Jadot (1909-2009), then Vice President of the Secretariat for Non-Christians. He earned his Licentiate in 1984 and was then sent to the mission in Chulucanas, Piura, Peru.
In 1987, he received his Doctorate with a thesis on the role of the local prior of the Augustinian Order. That same year, he was elected Director of Vocations and Missions for the Augustinian Province of Our Lady of Good Counsel in Olympia Fields, Illinois.
In 1988, he was sent to the Trujillo Mission, where he was responsible for the joint formation project for Augustinian aspirants of the Vicariates of Chulucanas, Iquitos, and Apurmac. In his missionary work, he held various offices at the service of his Order and the local Church: Prior of the Community (1988-1992), Director of Formation (1988-1998), and Teacher of the Professed (1992-1998). In the Archdiocese of Trujillo, he also served as Judicial Vicar (1989-1998) and Professor of Canon Law, Patristics, and Morals at the Major Seminary of San Carlos and San Marcelo. In 1999, he was elected Provincial of the Province of Our Lady of Good Counsel (Chicago). After two and a half years, the Ordinary General Chapter elected him Prior General, a position the Order entrusted to him again in the 2007 Ordinary General Chapter. In October 2013, he returned to his Order's province in Chicago to become Teacher of the Professed and Provincial Vicar. On November 3, 2014, Pope Francis appointed him Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Chiclayo, in Peru and elevated him to Titular Bishop of the Diocese of Sufar. He received episcopal ordination on December 12, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, in the Cathedral of his diocese. On January 30, 2023, Pope Francis appointed him Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and President of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, assigning him the Title of the Suburbicarian Church of Albano. At the consistory of September 30, 2023, Pope Francis created him a Cardinal and conferred on him the titular church of Saint Monica, mother of Saint Augustine. (GV) (Agenzia Fides, 9/5/2025)

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