Translated with AI
On the evening of May 8, a conclave of cardinals in the Vatican elected a new pope – the head of the Catholic Church and the spiritual leader of all Catholics. He was American Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, Tengrinews.kz reports.
Prevost was born on September 14, 1955 in Chicago, he is 69 years old. He is the first pontiff in history from the United States. He has Italian, French and Spanish roots.
He received a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Villanova University and later studied theology at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago and at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Rome.
Fluent in English, Spanish, Italian, French and Portuguese, reads Latin and German.
He joined the Augustinian Order in 1977 and was ordained a priest in 1982. He served as a missionary in Peru for 13 years. In 2001, he became the order's superior general and, since 2015, the bishop of Chiclayo, Peru.
In 2023, Pope Francis created him a cardinal and appointed him Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, making him one of the most influential figures in the Roman Curia. Until February 2025, Prevost was a Cardinal Deacon with the titular deaconry of Santa Monica.
Prevost has criticized new US President Donald Trump's mass deportations of migrants back to Latin America, and in February this year responded directly on the social media site X to Vice President J.D. Vance, who tried to justify the policy.
Vatican observers say Prevost has a reputation as a reformer, a peacemaker and a bishop loyal to Catholic traditions. The new pontiff is expected to focus on reforms to church governance, overcoming internal schisms, social justice issues and the Vatican's diplomatic role in global crises, including the war in Ukraine and conflicts in Sudan and the Middle East.
The name that each new pope chooses for himself upon ascending to the Holy See has a deep symbolic meaning.
The name Leo is one of the oldest in the list of papal names – it was borne, among others, by Pope Leo I the Great (440-461), who is considered one of the most influential pontiffs of the early church. He defended Rome from the Huns and was the first pope called "Great".
The symbol of a lion in Christianity is often associated with courage, spiritual authority, and also with the evangelist Mark. By choosing this name, Pope Leo XIV may have sought to emphasize leadership in difficult times, responsibility for the protection of the church and moral truth.
It could also be a reference to Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903), the last pope to bear the name Leo. He was known as an "intellectual" pontiff who combined tradition with an openness to the modern world. He published the famous encyclical Rerum Novarum, which laid the foundation for the Church's modern social teaching. Leo XIV may seek to continue social doctrine and the Church's role in addressing inequality, conflict, and the ecological crisis.
