This Thursday, June 19, marks the 43rd anniversary of Pope Leo XIV’s ordination to the priesthood. Robert Francis Prevost was ordained in Rome in 1982 as a member of the Order of Saint Augustine.
The ordination took place at the Augustinian College of Santa Monica and was presided over by Archbishop Jean Jadot, then pro-president of the Vatican’s Secretariat for Non-Christians. At the time, Prevost was 27 years old, recently sent to Rome by his superiors to study canon law at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas.
Born in Chicago in 1955, the future pope came from a family of French, Italian, and Spanish ancestry.
He entered the Augustinian novitiate in 1977 and professed solemn vows in 1981. He studied theology at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago and was later assigned to missionary work in Peru, where he would spend nearly two decades serving local communities and become a bishop and citizen of Peru.
His long pastoral and academic career led him to hold leadership roles within the Augustinian order, including as prior general, and later within the Roman Curia, where he served as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops. That experience shaped his reputation as a skilled administrator and pastor, eventually contributing to his election as pope on May 8, 2025.
In choosing the name Leo XIV, the new pontiff aligned himself with a lineage of popes who have played decisive roles in Catholic doctrine and social teaching.
Leo I, known as “the Great,” was instrumental in defining Christological doctrine in the fifth century. Leo XIII, remembered for the 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum, laid the foundations for modern Catholic social thought.
Pope Leo XIV’s election continues the trajectory begun under Pope Francis, the first pope from Latin America. The two share a similar pastoral sensibility, informed by years of ministry in the Americas. But Leo XIV also brings a distinct Augustinian perspective to the papacy, grounded in community life, theological study, and missionary service.
On this anniversary, the Pope is expected to celebrate a private Mass and offer prayers of thanksgiving. Though the day will pass without public fanfare, it quietly marks more than four decades of service to the Church — first as a priest, and now as the Bishop of Rome.
Discover five memorable quotes from Pope Leo XIV’s first months in office in the slideshow below.
