Per the Associated Press’s primer ahead of the conclave:
Francis brought Prevost, 69, 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. As a result, Prevost has a prominence going into the conclave that few other cardinals have.
One strike against him, however, is that he’s American, and there has long been a taboo against a U.S. pope, given the geopolitical power already wielded by the United States in the secular sphere. But Prevost, a Chicago native, could be a first because he’s also a Peruvian citizen and lived for years in Peru, first as a missionary and then as an archbishop.
Prevost was also twice elected prior general, or top leader, of the Augustinian religious order, the 13th century order founded by St. Augustine. Francis clearly had an eye on him for years, moving him from the Augustinian leadership back to Peru in 2014 to serve as the administrator and later archbishop of Chiclayo.
He remained in that position, acquiring Peruvian citizenship in 2015, until Francis brought him to Rome in 2023 to assume the presidency of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America. In that job he would have kept in regular contact with the Catholic hierarchy in the part of the world that counts still counts the most Catholics.
Ever since he arrived in Rome, Prevost has kept a low public profile, but he is well known to the men who count.
Significantly, he presided over one of the most revolutionary reforms Francis made, when he added three women to the voting bloc that decides which bishop nominations to forward to the pope. In early 2025, Francis again showed his esteem by appointing Prevost to the most senior rank of cardinals, suggesting he would at least be Francis’ choice in an any future conclave.
Prevost’s comparative youth could count against him if his brother cardinals don’t want to commit to a pope who might reign for another two decades.
By Intelligencer Staff , nymag.com , remove interruptions,liveblog,foreign interests,we’ll do it live,conclave,pope leo xiv ,
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2025-05-08 20:37:00 , Intelligencer – Daily News, Politics, Business, and Tech , Leo XIV Chosen as First American Pope: How It Happened