Leo XIV, the 267th pope, from the official record

Who is the Pope is one of the most searched questions about the Vatican, and the short answer is two words, Leo XIV. Here I’ve gathered what the Holy See’s own sources say about him, without opinions on religion, and what it means if you’re going to Rome. His name, where he’s from, his age, how long he’s been pope and what a pope actually does.

Who is the Pope now?

Robert Francis Prevost was born on 14 September 1955 in Chicago, the youngest of three brothers. His father was a teacher and later a school head, and his mother a librarian. He read Mathematics at Villanova University and joined the Order of St Augustine in 1977. He was ordained in Rome in 1982 and went on to a doctorate in canon law.

The thread that runs through his biography is Peru. He served as a missionary in Chulucanas, in the Piura region, and spent more than a decade in Trujillo training seminarians, teaching and running a parish. From 2001 to 2013 he led the Augustinians worldwide as Prior General. In 2014 he returned to Peru to run the diocese of Chiclayo, became its bishop in 2015 and took Peruvian citizenship the same year. Francis brought him to Rome in 2023 to head the Dicastery for Bishops and made him a cardinal that autumn.

Where is the Pope from, and how old is he?

He’s from Chicago, which makes him the first pope born in the United States. But whenever someone asks me where he’s from, I’d always add Peru, because he has been a naturalised Peruvian since 24 August 2015 and spent a large part of his adult life there. According to his official biography he speaks English, Spanish, Portuguese, French and Italian.

As for his age, he turned 71 on 14 September 2026, and he was 69 when he was elected. If you need the exact date for anything, go by the one on vatican.va.

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How long has he been pope, and why Leo?

He was elected on 8 May 2025, on the second day of the conclave and the fourth ballot. The white smoke appeared at 18:07, and that evening he stepped out onto the Benediction Loggia of St Peter’s, which is the moment in the photo above. His pontificate formally began on 18 May. How you get from an empty throne to white smoke is in my conclave guide, smoke signals included.

He explained the name to the cardinals two days later. There were several reasons, he said, and the main one was Leo XIII, the pope of the encyclical Rerum novarum, who took on the social questions raised by the first industrial revolution. His point was that another industrial revolution is under way, driven by artificial intelligence. He is number 267 on the Holy See’s list, and if you’re curious about how that list is numbered, I go through it in who the first pope was and how many there have been.

Leo XIV and your trip to Rome

For anyone travelling, his routine is the useful bit. When he’s in Rome he leads the general audience in the square on Wednesdays and prays the Angelus at 12:00 on Sundays from the window of his study. Since 14 March 2026 that window is once again the one in the papal apartment of the Apostolic Palace, because Leo XIV went back to the custom Francis had dropped. Which window to look at, and why, is in where the Pope lives.

What I’d check before booking is his travel diary. In 2026 he has been to Monaco, four countries in Africa, Spain in June, on the Pope’s visit to Madrid, Barcelona and the Canaries, and France at the end of September, and from 6 to 17 November he is due in Uruguay, Argentina and Peru. Don’t count on seeing him on those dates. If you do overlap with him in Rome, the order in which I’d try to see him is in how to see the Pope for free.

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What does the Pope do?

Canon 331 of the Code of Canon Law sums it up. The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, head of the college of bishops and pastor of the universal Church, with a power the canon itself calls supreme, full, immediate and universal. From the outside, what you see of that role is his audiences, the Masses he celebrates, his documents and his journeys, each one published by the Holy See on its website.

There’s a second role that matters more to a visitor. The Pope is also the sovereign of Vatican City State, and the Fundamental Law that Leo XIV himself promulgated on 31 July 2026 gives him the fullness of governing power. In other words, he is head of the state you enter when you cross the colonnade. How that fits with the Holy See, a separate thing, I explain in whether the Vatican is a country.

What I’m not going to tell you

You won’t find verdicts on his pontificate or his decisions here. That’s not what a travel guide is for, and I have no official source that sums it up without bias. What you do get is checked dates, so you aren’t misled by figures that float around without a source, such as rounded ages or the wrong election date. Every one on this page comes from vatican.va or the Holy See Press Office.

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If you are staying the night, see the best hotel deals in Borgo, Rome for your dates: the well-placed rooms go fast.