In grade school at St. Mary’s — where, in the days before the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, students attended daily Mass, which was still read in Latin — he was known as the best student in his class.

He defended his doctoral thesis on “The Role of the Local Prior in the Order of Saint Augustine” in 1987 and was appointed vocation director and missions director of the Augustinian Province of “Mother of Good Counsel” in Olympia Fields, Illinois.

Augustinians, the order Leo was schooled in since he attended St. Augustine Seminary High School in Michigan, call themselves “active contemplative” and are known for their work in education and as missionaries for their devotion to communal living.

He is, according to the Vatican News, the first Augustinian Pope.

Leo began to climb the ranks of church leadership early in his career. He led the Augustinian order in the Midwest for several years beginning in 1999.

In 2002, he became prior general of Augustinians internationally, a position he held for a decade.

The new pope has lived only a third of his life in the United States, instead spending much of the rest of it in Europe and Latin America.

He became a naturalized citizenof Peru in 2015.

Also in 2015, he was namedthe Bishop of Chiclayo in Peru.

He votes in Illinois. According to the Will County clerk, he voted in the general elections in 2012, 2014, 2018 and 2024, and he was registered as a Republican in the primaries in 2012, 2014 and 2016, records show.

“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 the Rev. Mark Francis, who attended seminary with Prevost. “He has a wry sense of humor, but was not someone who sought the limelight.”

But like his predecessor, he has not shied from using mass media to articulate his concern for immigrants and the poor. Earlier this year, a social media account under his name reposted criticism of President Trump’s treatment of Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

In 2017, the same account under Prevost’s name retweeted a post by Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy(D), in which Murphy pressured his fellow senators to act on gun control and wrote, “your cowardice to act cannot be whitewashed by thoughts and prayers.”

Also in 2017, the account under Prevost’s name retweeted a statement from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops condemning hate in response to the deadly white supremacist protests in Charlottesville, Virginia.

The account also in 2017 reposted a pro-DACA tweet from Sister Helen Prejean.

In 2023, then-Cardinal Prevost expressed skepticism.

Why did Pope Leo XIII choose his name?

The new pope also explained the choice of his name. The previous pope with his name, Leo XIII, issued a document called the “Rerum Novarum,” known in English as “Rights and Duties of Capital and Labor,” in the late 19th century in which he emphasized the church’s right to make assertions about social issues as they related to moral questions.

- Interviewed by one of his classmate, why he chose name Leo XIV: thought between Augustine and Leo and Chose Leo for the discernment of matters.make clear the way of God.

Unum Cor : One heart

1- The End of Financial Secrecy: He ordered the transformation of the Vatican bank in Rome. No longer a black box, donation is no longer in shadow. Investment… but about the trust of people who put a dollar in a basket is no longer to be hidden. Everything must be exposed.

2- Term Limit for all clergy: 10 years for Bishops, 5 years for Cardinals. Cardinals of the Departments after the term will be reassigned. Break the ladder ambition to stop priests from climbing and force them to serve. The goal is to focus on people rather than on power.

3- Ordination of women to diaconate (not mean women priest): the church breathes only on one lung, now breathes by both lungs

4- Complete restructuring of confessions. As Spirit guiding and healing in face-to-face, not in the dark box, a whispered list of sin and judgment. For a long time, the church treated people as if God were the judge in a courtroom. Now, the field hospital where God is the physician.

5- For abuse matters: made a mandatory lay-led accountability board to deal with abuse and cover-up. For a long time, the practice of bishops conducting investigations on priests, and cardinals investigating bishops. It just ran around and covered up without using a specialist. Now using specialists so investigation not hierarchy: a complete surrender of internal clerical power. Church admitting it needs help.

6- Dissolution of Papal Title (nobility): it tells the world that the church is not a monarchy or country club but a family.

7- A universal Catechism for a digital age. The last update is 1992. Pope Leo 14 orders a complete rewrite. He does not hand this job to the cardinals in Rome. But invites theologians, scientists, artists, poets, mothers, fathers, even atheists and agnostics of goodwill to contribute to a new catechism. A document that speaks the language of the human heart, not the Thomistic philosophy, and it must be digitally accessible online.

8- Radical Decentralization of the Liturgy. The liturgy adapts to local, not dictated by Rome, or not to a European box. It depends on the national bishop (culture). In that they can find God in their heart, culture, and way.

9- The Church of the Poor Made Real: he ordered the sale of dozens of non-essential luxurious Vatican properties outside of Vatican City and real estate investment in Rome and parishes in London. Billions do not go to the Vatican general fund but are put into an independently managed foundation called the Fund of the Dispossessed. The mission will be to directly fund global projects for housing, food, and clean water. Practically the first palace he put on the list was the papal summer palace itself (Castel Gandolfo ), which for centuries turned to a hospital and rehabilitation center for the sick and poor of Rome: preach not with words but with deeds instead.

10- Full communion for the divorced and remarried catholics: create a path of discernment median for the sick. God's mercy is not a prize for the perfect but the medicine for the sick. Who are we to deny medicine to those who are hurting the most? How does the church deal with messy marriage, the most painful of human lives?

11- A binding joint council with the Eastern Orthodox Chruch (still separate): a new universal council even gave up power as papacy for union with the orthodox church(154). He gave up power in the shape of unity. In other words, to build the bridge, you have to have the courage to tear down your wall.

12- The Mandate of Scientific Literacy: the ghost of Galileo haunted the church's relationship with science: a faith that is afraid of the truth is not the faith at all. Cosmal…

13- The Abolition of the Title "Vicar of Christ" means directly representative of Jesus Christ on earth. He retires the title and orders to put on all official documents: the servant of the servants of God. There is only the Vicar of Jesus, and He is in heaven. I am Peter the fisherman.

14- Reimagining Papal Conclave for the next pope. It includes a council of lay people, about 50 lay people, 25 men and 25 women, together with cardinals. The lay people are specialists, not voters, but contribute their voices: he argues that the Holy Spirit does not only speak to the cardinals. Shephard must be chosen with the council of the flock he is to lead.

15- The Senate of all People: He is not just inviting the bishops of the world, but also delegations from other Christian denominations, representatives from other religions: Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, even secular humanists: atheists, scientists, and philosophers.