UN General Assembly President Philemon Yang, on Thursday, welcomed the announcement of a new Pope, His Holiness Pope Leo XIV.
Leo, born Robert Francis Prevost – is the first person from the United States to lead the Catholic Church, although he also holds Peruvian citizenship after working in the Latin American country for many years.
He was selected by cardinals voting at the Vatican and later greeted thousands gathered in St. Peter’s Square with a message of peace.
Yang extended heartfelt congratulations to the new pontiff and Roman Catholics worldwide.
“As the new spiritual leader for over a billion Catholics worldwide, Pope Leo will stand as a beacon of solidarity in a world beset by unprecedented challenges, offering guidance, unity, and a moral voice on global issues.
“I look forward to enhancing the strong partnership between the Holy See and the UN General Assembly as we strengthen our efforts to renew multilateralism and build a resilient, equal, and sustainable world for everyone, everywhere,’’ he said in a statement.
Pope Leo, 69, was born and grew up in the midwestern city of Chicago and spent years working as a missionary in Peru, before becoming a bishop and then rising to head the international Order of St. Augustine.
He became a cardinal in 2023 and went on to run the Vatican office that selects and manages Catholic bishops worldwide.
Leo succeeds Pope Francis – the first Pope from Latin America – who died in April after serving for 12 years.
According to the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations, the new Pope spent his childhood and adolescence with his family.
He studied first at the Minor Seminary of the Augustinian Fathers and then at Villanova University in Pennsylvania, where in 1977 he earned a degree in Mathematics and also studied Philosophy.
On 1st September of the same year, Prevost entered the novitiate of the Order of Saint Augustine (O.S.A.) in Saint Louis, in the Province of Our Lady of Good Counsel of Chicago, and made his first profession on September 2, 1978. On August 29 1981, he made his solemn vows.
The future Pontiff received his theological education at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. At the age of 27, he was sent by his superiors to Rome to study Canon Law at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum).
In Rome, he was ordained a priest on June 19, 1982, at the Augustinian College of Saint Monica by Archbishop Jean Jadot, then pro-president of the Secretariat for Non-Christians, which later became the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and then the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue.
In 1999, he was elected Provincial Prior of the Augustinian Province of “Mother of Good Counsel” in Chicago, and two and a half years later, the ordinary General Chapter of the Order of Saint Augustine, elected him as Prior General, confirming him in 2007 for a second term.
In October 2013, he returned to his Augustinian Province in Chicago, serving as director of formation at the Saint Augustine Convent, first councilor, and provincial vicar.
He held these roles until Pope Francis appointed him on November 3, 2014, as Apostolic Administrator of the Peruvian Diocese of Chiclayo, elevating him to the episcopal dignity as Titular Bishop of Sufar.
He entered the Diocese on Nov. 7, in the presence of Apostolic Nuncio James Patrick Green, who ordained him Bishop just over a month later, on Dec. 12, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, in the Cathedral of Saint Mary.
His episcopal motto is “In Illo uno unum” – words pronounced by Saint Augustine in a sermon on Psalm 127 to explain that “although we Christians are many, in the one Christ we are one.”
On September 25, 2015, he was appointed Bishop of Chiclayo by Pope Francis.
In March 2018, he was elected second vice-president of the Peruvian Episcopal Conference, where he also served as a member of the Economic Council and president of the Commission for Culture and Education.
In 2019, Pope Francis appointed him a member of the Congregation for the Clergy (13 July, 2019), and in 2020, a member of the Congregation for Bishops ( Nov. 21). Meanwhile, on April 15, 2020, he was also appointed Apostolic Administrator of the Peruvian Diocese of Callao.
On January 30, 2023, the Pope called him to Rome as Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and President of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, promoting him to the rank of Archbishop.
Pope Francis created him Cardinal in the Consistory of Sept. 30 that year and assigned him the Diaconate of Saint Monica.
