Developing | Robert Prevost chosen as new pope, first US pontiff in history
Robert Prevost, a missionary who spent his career ministering in Peru and leads the Vatican’s powerful office of bishops, was elected the first American pope in the 2,000-year history of the Catholic Church.
Prevost, a 69 member of the Augustinian religious order, took the name Leo XIV. He appeared on the loggia of St Peter’s Square wearing the traditional red cape of the papacy – a cape that Pope Francis had eschewed on his election in 2013.
The new pontiff said “Peace be with you” in his first words as pope, offering a message of peace and dialogue “without fear”.
He recalled he was an Augustinian priest, but that he was above all a Christian above all and a bishop, “so we can all walk together”.
He spoke in Italian and then switched to Spanish, recalling his many years spent as a missionary and then archbishop of Chiclayo, Peru.
Prevost had been a leading candidate except for his nationality. There had long been a taboo against a US pope, given the geopolitical power already wielded by the United States in the secular sphere.
