- Thursday, May 8, 2025

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• Pope Leo XIV (formerly Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost) is the first American pope in the Catholic Church’s 2,000-year history.

• He is 69 years old.



•  He chose the papal name Leo XIV.

• Prior to his election, then-Pope Francis appointed him to lead the Vatican’s influential office of bishops in 2023, a position that vets bishop nominations worldwide.

• He holds dual citizenship (American and Peruvian) and spent much of his career as a missionary and archbishop in Peru.

• He belongs to the Augustinian religious order, continuing a tradition of popes from religious orders rather than the diocesan priesthood.

— The Associated Press

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Read more: Robert Prevost, first American pope in history of the Catholic Church, will take the name Leo XIV 

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