That was quick

 

Pope Leo XIV - Robert Prevost, an American.  I hope that works out.  

He spent his childhood and adolescence with his family and studied first at the Minor Seminary of the Augustinian Fathers and then at Villanova University in Pennsylvania, where in 1977 he earned a Degree in Mathematics and also studied Philosophy.

On September 1 of the same year, he entered the novitiate of the Order of Saint Augustine (O.S.A.) in Saint Louis, in the Province of Our Lady of Good Counsel of Chicago, and made his first profession on September 2, 1978. On August 29, 1981, he made his solemn vows.

He received his theological education at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. At the age of 27, he was sent by his superiors to Rome to study Canon Law at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum).

[...]

On September 26, 2015, he was appointed Bishop of Chiclayo [Peru] by Pope Francis.

  Vatican News

Prevost spent eleven years on mission in Peru before returning to Chicago.

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.

  AP News

That's cool.  But I'm definitely not crazy about this from Wikipedia:

Gender

Then Cardinal Prevost opposed the inclusion of curriculum regarding "teachings on gender in schools" in Peru, stating that that the "promotion of gender ideology is confusing, because it seeks to create genders that don’t exist".^[32]

Homosexuality

In 2010, then Cardinal Prevost lamented that popular culture fostered “sympathy for beliefs and practices that are at odds with the Gospel", citing the “homosexual lifestyle” and “alternative families comprised of same-sex partners and their adopted children.”^[

That will not help us.  Hopefully, he has evolved since then, and after spending time with Pope Francis.  In fact, ...

UPDATE 02:55 pm:

Wait till she gets Trump's ear again. 

Don't know what this was about, but in '17, Prevost retweeted Chris Murphy...*

From Chicago Tribune Afternoon Briefing newsletter:

Pope Francis brought Robert Prevost to the Vatican in 2023 as the powerful head of the office that vets bishop nominations, one of the most important jobs in the Catholic Church. Today, he ascended to become Pope Leo XIV — the first American pontiff. Prevost, 69, had to overcome the taboo against a U.S. pope, given the geopolitical power already wielded by the United States in the secular sphere.

Catholics across the region are celebrating the historic announcement that the first American pope in the 2,000-year history of the church was born and raised in the Chicago area. Prevost’s Catholic roots were planted in Chicago’s south suburbs, where he lived in Dolton with his parents and two brothers. He grew up in St. Mary of the Assumption parish on the far South Side, attending school there with his siblings. Prevost is also a Peruvian citizen and lived for years in Peru, first as a missionary and then as an archbishop.

Maybe Robert Francis Prevost could have a talk with Robert Francis Kennedy Jr.

Maybe Pope Leo could retweet that.

And we can also be proud that our junior senator is Tammy Duckworth.

UPDATE 08:47 pm:  Lordy, they'll really be squealing now...

* It was about gun control.

Deacon John Donahue, president at St. Rita, said the name a pope chooses comes with a lot of meaning.

“The last [Pope] Leo was the 13th, and he wrote a very powerful encyclical called Rerum Novarum, which was on behalf of the working people of the world,” Donahue said. “It’s very interesting. We’ll see what that means in the future.”

  Chicago Sun Times

UPDATE 05/09/2025:  MAGA will be all over this, too...

Also, Prevost voted in Republican primaries in 2012, 14, and 16.