Robert Prevost, a missionary who spent his career ministering in Peru and leads the Vatican’s powerful office of bishops, was elected the first American pope in the 2,000-year history of the Catholic Church.
Prevost, a 69 member of the Augustinian religious order, took the name Leo XIV. He appeared on the loggia of St. Peter's Square wearing the traditional red cape of the papacy — a cape that Pope Francis had eschewed on his election in 2013.
