I met the man who would become Pope Leo XIV in October 2023. We were standing outside the Vatican’s Synod Hall, and from my short conversation with Cardinal Robert Prevost, I could tell he was a good listener,

Robert Prevost, a native of Chicago, is a missionary who spent his career ministering in Peru and leads the Vatican’s office of bishops.

Cardinal Robert Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV, has been elected as the new leader of the Roman Catholic Church, succeeding Pope Francis. The 69-year-old, the first American to hold the position, addressed the crowd in Italian and Spanish,