The Conclave has elected Robert Francis Cardinal Prevost as the 267th pope. The new pope was announced to the waiting crowds by Cardinal Protodeacon Dominique Mamberti.
After that, the 69-year-old then appeared at the balcony in St. Peter’s Basilica and said Peace be with all of you!” he then had his time to bless the people as it the tradition.
He appeared after white smoke streamed from the chimney atop the Sistine Chapel, signaling the 133 cardinals inside had elected a new pope.
In his first ever speech he said he wanted his message of peace to enter people’s hearts, reach their families and all people, wherever they are. He thanked his fellow cardinals for selecting him, and spoke in Italian, Spanish and Latin.
He also spoke warmly of the late Pope Francis and concluded by leading the crowd in prayer.
Who Is Pope Leo IV?
Pope Leo IV is the first Augustinian Pope, also the First from the United States of America. Pope Leo IV is also the second Pope from the Americas after his predecessor Pope Francis who was from South America (Argentina).
The 69-year-old Robert Francis Prevost spent many years as a missionary in Peru before being elected head of the Augustinians for two consecutive terms.
The new Bishop of Rome was born on September 14, 1955, in Chicago, Illinois, to Louis Marius Prevost, of French and Italian descent, and Mildred Martínez, of Spanish descent. He has two brothers, Louis Martín and John Joseph.
He spent his childhood and adolescence with his family 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.
On September 1 of the same year, he 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. On August 29, 1981, he made his solemn vows.
He received his theological education at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. 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).
In Rome, he was ordained a priest on June 19, 1982, at the Augustinian College of Saint Monica by Monsignor Jean Jadot, then Pro-President of the Pontifical Council for Non-Christians, now the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue.
Prevost obtained his licentiate in 1984; and the following year, while preparing his doctoral thesis, was sent to the Augustinian mission in Chulucanas, Piura, Peru (1985–1986). In 1987, he defended his doctoral thesis on “The Role of the Local Prior in the Order of Saint Augustine” and was appointed vocation director and missions director of the Augustinian Province of “Mother of Good Counsel” in Olympia Fields, Illinois (USA).
Pope Leo IV was elected on the second day of the papal election process; the conclave.
