Pope’s 70th birthday celebrated

Last May, for the first time in the history of the Papacy, an American was elected as Pope. This past Sunday, Chicago native Pope Leo XIV celebrated his 70th birthday at the Vatican.

According to Vatican News, Pope Leo XIV was born Robert Francis Prevost on Sept. 15, 1955, in Chicago, Illinois to Louis and Mildred Prevost. He studied at the Minor Seminary of Augustinian Fathers in high school and received his undergraduate degree from Villanova, an Augustinian University.

After formally joining the Order of St. Augustine, Prevost pursued his Master of Divinity from Chicago’s Catholic Theological Union. In 1982 he was sent to study at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome where he received a doctorate in Canon Law and was ordained as a priest. Prevost was sent to Peru on a mission while studying in Rome, and he moved back almost as soon as he graduated to begin his long career in the country.

In 1999 Prevost was elected as the Prior of the Augustinian province of Chicago, and just over two years later he was elected as the worldwide Prior General of the Augustinian Order, a position he held for two terms of three years.

In 2013 he returned to Peru and was appointed Bishop of Chiclayo by Pope Francis. In 2023 Prevost returned to Rome, where Pope Francis made him a Cardinal and appointed him as head of the Office of the Bishops, the organization that vets new Bishops.

Cindy Gonzalez, Director of CSB Campus Ministry, said in an interview that the election of an American Pope was a total surprise, and the Catholic world is waiting to see how it will affect the Papacy. She also said that Pope Leo understands the Midwest and the trauma of the United States better than any Pope in history, making him uniquely qualified to address American issues.

“[Leo is one of the] first Popes to speak out against gun violence, saying he was praying for Minnesota, which was nurturing, but it was also a call to arms to stop gun violence,” Gonzalez said.

While change in the Catholic church is often considered to be slow moving, it does still happen. Pope Leo XIV is the first Augustinian Pope, an order which is similar to the Benedictine order as both maintain the importance of communal living, but with a focus on apostolic activity, or ministry, instead of education.

“Pope Francis never stopped working. In his first summer Pope Leo went on vacation, which is a shift [in methods,] but it’s also an invitation to find balance in our own lives” Gonzalez said, explaining how the Papacy might differ under a new Pope with different traditions