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Pope Leo XIV celebrates his first Mass as pope with the cardinals who elected him in the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican May 9, 2025. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

Pope Leo XIV: A biographical timeline


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OSV News Filed Under: News, Vatican, World News

The following are key dates in the life and ministry of Pope Leo XIV, elected May 8, 2025, as the 266th successor to St. Peter:

— 1955: Born Sept. 14 in the Chicago area.

Pope Francis greets U.S.-born Cardinal Robert F. Prevost, prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, after the cardinal spoke on behalf of himself and 20 other new cardinals created during a consistory in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican Sept. 30, 2023. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

— 1977: Graduated from Villanova University near Philadelphia and entered the novitiate for the Order of St. Augustine in St. Louis.

— 1978: Professed first vows as a member of the Order of St. Augustine.

— 1981: Professed solemn vows as a member of the Order of St. Augustine.

— 1982: Ordained a priest of the Order of St. Augustine.

— 1984: Earned a licentiate in canon law from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) in Rome.

— 1985: Sent to work in the mission of Chulucanas, in Piura, Peru, until 1986.

— 1987: Elected the vocations director and missions director for his order’s Midwest province, Our Mother of Good Counsel.

— 1988: Moved to Trujillo, Peru, to direct a joint formation project for the region’s Augustinian aspirants. Over the course of a decade in Trujillo, he served as the community’s prior (1988-1992), formation director (1988-1998) and as an instructor (1992-1998).

U.S.-born Archbishop Robert F. Prevost, prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, poses for a photograph during an event held in the Barberini hall of the Vatican Library July 19, 2023. (CNS photo/Carol Glatz)

— 1989: Began serving the Archdiocese of Trujillo for nine years as its judicial vicar; was also a professor of canon, patristic and moral law in the San Carlos e San Marcelo Major Seminary.

— 1999: Elected prior provincial for the Province of Our Mother of Good Counsel in Chicago.

— 2001: Promoted to his order’s prior general, considered its supreme authority that oversees its administration and governance. He was reelected to that role in 2007, holding it for a total of 12 years until 2013.

— 2013: Served for a year as a “teacher of the professed” and provincial vicar.

— 2014: Appointed by Pope Francis to be apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Chiclayo, Peru. He was simultaneously named a bishop, but of the titular diocese Sufar, under which title he was ordained a month later on Dec. 12, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

— 2015: Appointed bishop of Chiclayo on Sept. 26.

— 2018: Served as second vice president of the Peruvian Episcopal Conference until 2023.

— 2019: Appointed a member of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Clergy.

— 2020: While still bishop of Chiclayo, appointed apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Callao, Peru, a role he held until May 2021. He was also appointed to the Congregation for Bishops.

— 2023: Appointed prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, named president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America and granted the title archbishop Jan. 30; installed in those roles April 12. On Sept. 30, elevated to the College of Cardinals.

— 2025: Elected pope May 8, taking the name Leo XIV.

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