On May 8, 2025, the College of Cardinals elected Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, O.S.A., as the 267th bishop of Rome. Born in the American Midwest and shaped by years as an Augustinian missionary, teacher, pastor, and bishop in Peru, Cardinal Prevost most recently served the global Catholic Church through leadership roles at the Holy See. He chose the name Leo XIV, evoking the sources of modern Catholic social teaching in the spirit of the Second Vatican Council.
Cushwa Center co-director David Lantigua shared his initial reflections on the election of a second pope from the Americas.
Editor’s update: On July 3, 2025, David Lantigua will offer a livestreamed public lecture in Rome, “Two Popes from the Americas: Leo XIV and the Social Legacy of Francis.” Please register to attend either in person or online.
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Another pope from the Americas has stepped into the shoes of the fisherman. The conclave elected Chicago-born Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost after only four votes. He holds a doctorate in canon law and has served as a missionary bishop with a decade of leadership in the Peruvian church. After giving honor to the legacy of his predecessor from Latin America, Pope Leo XIV spoke to his Peruvian community of faith in Spanish and thanked them for accompanying him as bishop.
As the dark horse of the papal conclave, Robert Francis Prevost’s election is rather shocking but not all that surprising. He was clearly the continuity candidate who will combine legal acumen with the pastoral experience of Latin America. With the American hemisphere now representing about one-half of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, American Catholicism is very much the anchor and source of the global Catholic Church.
The next reform papacy of Leo XIV, like Francis, will be focused not on changing the Catholic Church into a social club or NGO but in transforming the people of God into missionary disciples who proclaim the Good News of Christ to a suffering world in need of hope. This attention to reform makes him very compelling, but also likely to be misunderstood for not fitting into conventional political labels. The synodal process, sincere dialogue, and a bold evangelization that demands strong social commitments to the poor, the neglected, and God’s creation will mark this new Leonine papacy after Vatican II. The selection of the name Leo—a lion—represents a courageous desire to engage the modern world rooted in the wisdom and faith experience of the Latin American church as Francis did.
David Lantigua
William W. and Anna Jean Cushwa Co-Director
Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism
University of Notre Dame
Find recent media commentary from the Cushwa Center’s faculty directors and fellows on the election of Pope Leo XIV and other contemporary events at our in the media page.