Prevost, first US pope, supported Francis and shunned spotlight

By Joshua McElwee

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Robert Prevost, the choice of the world's Catholic cardinals to serve as leader of the 1.4-billion-member Church, is the first pope from the United States and a relative unknown on the global stage.

Aged 69 and originally from Chicago, Prevost has spent most of his career as a missionary in Peru and became a cardinal only in 2023. He has given few media interviews.

He takes the papal name Leo XIV, and succeeds Pope Francis, who had led the Church since 2013.

Rev. Mark Francis, a friend of Prevost since the 1970s, told Reuters the cardinal was a firm supporter of his predecessor's papacy, and especially of the late pontiff's commitment to social justice issues.

"He was always friendly and warm and remained a voice of common sense and practical concerns for the Church's outreach to the poor," said Francis, who attended seminary with Prevost and later knew him when they both lived in Rome in the 2000s.

"He has a wry sense of humour, but was not someone who sought the limelight," said Francis, who leads the U.S. province of the Viatorian religious order.

Prevost first served as a bishop in Chiclayo, in northwestern Peru, from 2015 to 2023, and became a Peruvian citizen in 2015, so he has dual nationalities.

Pope Francis brought him to Rome that year to head the Vatican office in charge of choosing which priests should serve as Catholic bishops across the globe, meaning he has had a hand in selecting many of the world's bishops.

The new pope's views on many issues are little known.

During a 2023 Vatican press conference, he expressed scepticism about ordaining women as Catholic clergy, repeating a line Francis often used about the risk of "clericalizing" women.

Leo's record on sexual abuse cases, a key issue for the global Church, has not been thoroughly examined in public.

Bishop Accountability, a group that tracks clergy sexual abuse, said in a statement after the new pope's election that he had a mixed record on the issue. The group praised his efforts to help one abuse victim in Peru, but raised questions about his handling of other allegations levelled against two priests.

Jesus Leon Angeles, coordinator of a Catholic group in Chiclayo who has known Prevost since 2018, called Prevost a "very simple" person who would go out of his way to help others.

Leon Angeles said Prevost had shown special concern for Venezuelan migrants in Peru, saying: "He is a person who likes to help." More than 1.5 million Venezuelans have moved to Peru in recent years, partly to escape their country's economic crisis.

In a 2023 interview with the Vatican's news outlet, Prevost focused on the importance of evangelization to help the Church grow.

"We are often preoccupied with teaching doctrine ... but we risk forgetting that our first task is to teach what it means to know Jesus Christ," he said.

Prevost said during a 2023 Vatican press conference: "Our work is to enlarge the tent and to let everyone know they are welcome inside the Church."

'HE KNOWS HOW TO LISTEN'

Prevost was born in 1955 and is a member of the global Augustinian religious order, which includes about 2,500 priests and brothers, operates in 50 countries and has a special focus on a life of community and equality among its members.

He has a bachelor's degree from Villanova University in the suburbs of Philadelphia, a master's from the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, and a doctorate in Church law from the Pontifical College of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome.

Prevost first went to Peru as a missionary in 1985, returning to the United States in 1999 to take up a leadership role in his religious order.

He later moved to Rome to serve two six-year terms as head of the Augustinians, visiting many of the order's communities across the world. He is known to speak English, Spanish, Italian, French and Portuguese.

Returning to Rome in 2023, Prevost generally did not take part in many of the social events that attract Vatican officials throughout the city.

Leon Angeles said he is a person with leadership skills, "but at the same time, he knows how to listen. He has that virtue."

"The cardinal has the courtesy to ask for an opinion, even if it's from the simplest or most humble person," she said. "He knows how to listen to everyone."

(Reporting by Joshua McElwee; Additional reporting by Marco Aquino in Lima; Editing by Keith Weir, Janet Lawrence and Deepa Babington)