YES WE VATICAN

Chicago native is named the Church's leader after secret ballot in conclave Prevost, 69, was a missionary in Peru before Pope Francis made him a cardinal

- BY NICOLE WINFIELD

ROBERT Prevost, a missionary who spent his career ministering in Peru and took over the Vatican's powerful office of bishops, was elected the first Pope from the United States in the 2,000-year history of the Catholic Church.

The 69-year-old member of the Augustinian religious order took the name Leo XIV.

In his first words as Pope Francis' successor, uttered from the loggia of St Peter's Basilica, Leo said, "Peace be with you," and then emphasised a message of peace, dialogue and missionary evangelisation.

He wore the traditional red cape of the papacy a garment that Francis had eschewed on his election in 2013.

Prevost had been a leading candidate for the papacy, but there had long been a taboo against a US pope, given the geopolitical power the country already wielded.

But Prevost, a Chicago native, was seemingly eligible because he's also a Peruvian citizen and lived for years in the South American nation, first as a missionary and then as an archbishop.

Pope Francis clearly had his eye on Prevost.

He brought him to the Vatican in 2023 to serve as the powerful head of the office that vets bishop nominations from around the world, one of the most important jobs in the Catholic Church.