São Paulo, 8 - Robert Francis Prevost was born in the United States and spent two decades in Peru, where he was sent in the late 1980s for a formation project for aspirant Augustinians. He also holds Peruvian nationality. According to the Diocese of Chiclayo, where he built most of his religious trajectory, the new pope is a polyglot: he speaks English, Spanish, Italian, French, and Portuguese. He also reads Latin and German. He graduated in Theology from the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. At 27, he was sent to Rome to study Canon Law at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum). He was ordained a priest on June 19, 1982, at the Augustinian College of Santa Monica. He obtained his licentiate in 1984 and, the following year, while preparing his doctoral thesis, was sent to the Augustinian mission in Chulucanas, Piura region, Peru. In 1987, he defended his doctoral thesis on The Role of the Prior of the Order of St. Augustine and was appointed Director of Vocations and Director of Missions of the Augustinian Province of the Good Counsel, in the American state of Illinois. The following year, he joined the Trujillo mission, also in Peru, as director of the common formation project for Augustinian aspirants from the vicariates of Chulucanas, Iquitos, and Apurímac. After performing various functions in Peru, he was parish administrator of Our Lady of Monserrat from 1992 to 1999. FORMATION In 1999, he was elected prior provincial of the Augustinian Province of the Good Counsel of Chicago. Two years and a half later, he was chosen as prior general, confirmed in 2007 for a second term. In October 2013, he returned to the Augustinian province in Chicago and was director of formation at the Augustinian Convent, first counselor and vicar provincial. He held these positions until Pope Francis appointed him, in 2014, apostolic administrator of the Peruvian diocese of Chiclayo, elevating him to the dignity of bishop as bishop titular of Sufar. Prevost was named bishop of Chiclayo by the Argentine in 2015. During this period, he did not leave politics aside, besides his religious activities. In 2017, when the former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori received a Christmas pardon, Prevost was critical of the decision and asked the population to reject the pardon in peaceful demonstrations, saying that the former leader should apologize to the victims of his government. In 2018, he was elected second vice-president of the Peruvian Episcopal Conference, where he was also a member of the Economic Council and president of the Culture and Education Commission. And he did not hesitate to speak about corruption in the country. "We have reached a point of rupture in the political level. A new beginning requires not only a change of government, but the moral and ethical recovery of the country at all levels, because high levels of corruption steal hope, especially from the poor and young." The new pope was included among the members of the Congregation for the Clergy in 2019 and, the following year, among the members of the Congregation for Bishops. He also received the pontifical nomination as apostolic administrator of the Peruvian diocese of Callao. ROMA In 2023, Francis called him to Rome as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and President of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, promoting him to archbishop. At the same consistory, he was made a cardinal. Prevost took possession on January 28, 2024, and, as head of the dicastery, participated in the last apostolic voyages of Pope Francis and the first and second sessions of the 14th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on Synodality, held in Rome between 2023 and 2024.
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