For the first time in its history, the Catholic Church will be led by an American-born Pope. The College of Cardinals elected on Thursday as the Church’s new leader 69-year-old American Robert Prevost, who took the name of Pope Leo XIV and told the cheering crowd in St. Peter’s Square he is “always seeking peace and justice, seeking to work with men and women who are faithful to Jesus Christ without fear to proclaim the gospel.”
Leo was elected on the third ballot and is considered a consensus candidate.
“God loves us. God loves everyone,” he said through a translator. “Evil will not prevail. We are all in the hands of God. Therefore, without fear, united hand in hand with God and amongst ourselves, let us go forward. We are the disciples of Christ. Christ goes before us. The world needs His light.”
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Leo was born in Chicago in 1955 and earned a degree in mathematics at Villanova University in Pennsylvania before joining the Order of St. Augustine and then receiving his master of divinity degree from Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. He earned a doctorate in…
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