In a historic move, the College of Cardinals has elected the first Pope from North America to ever rule the Catholic Church in the person of Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost from Chicago. Called the first “American” Pope, the native of Illinois, Cardinal Prevost nevertheless spent the bulk of his ecclesiastical career outside the U.S., including time as a missionary in Peru. 

On the pro-life front, Cardinal Prevost—now Pope Leo XIV—has been an active and staunch defender of the preborn, insisting that abortion is “murder” and upholding the Catholic Church’s teaching that life begins at conception. He even started a pro-life group on the campus of Villanova University in the 1970’s– “Villanovans for Life” – one of Students for Life of America’s leading campus groups. He’s a living proof that SFLA folks rise to the highest levels of leadership! 

In a 2012 address, the future pope explained that “We cannot build a just society if we discard the weakest—whether the child in the womb or the elderly in their frailty—for they are both gifts from God.” 

“God’s mercy calls us to protect every life, especially the most vulnerable.” 

Prior to his election as Pope, Prevost also opposed the poison of gender ideology, stating, “The promotion of gender ideology is confusing, because it seeks to create genders that don’t exist.” As bishop in Chiclayo, in Peru, he stood against a government plan to including “gender teachings” in schools. 

He has also lamented Western news media and popular entertainment that promotes “sympathy for beliefs and practices that are at odds with the gospel.”  

As Cardinal, Prevost held an important position as Prefect of the Dicastery of Bishops under Pope Francis, a powerful Vatican post responsible for the appointment of bishops worldwide. His views on immigration and the environment have been described as similar to Pope Francis’s, according to the College of Cardinals Report. He’s on record opposing the ordination of women. 

Prevost is a member of the Augustinian order and received a doctorate in canon law in Rome from the Pontifical College of St. Thomas Aquinas, receiving ordination in 1982. He served as a bishop in Peru prior to his position heading up the Dicastery for Bishops. 

He was considered a wild-card possibility to lead the church, and we pray for his success in being a voice for the voiceless – born and preborn. His job, he said in a previous interview, is clear, “My vocation, like that of every Christian, is to be a missionary, to proclaim the Gospel wherever one is.” 

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