President Luis Abinader expects new Pope Leo XIV to visit the Dominican Republic soon. It would be his third visit.
It is now known that Robert Francis Prevost, on 11 September 1950 in Chicago, Illinois, of Spanish-speaking parents, and an Augustinian priest, has been at least twice to the Dominican Republic and is said to have a Dominican maternal grandfather.
At the time of his election to the Papacy, the 69-year old Cardinal Prevost was the Prefect of the Dicastery of Bishops, named to this leadership position by the late Pope Francis in 2023. Previously, the American prelate had been the Prior General of the Augustinian Order, and president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.
Following the protocol for the inauguration of the new Pope, Vice President Raquel Peña will travel to Rome to attend the mass marking the beginning of his pontificate at St. Peter’s Square on 18 May 2025 at 10am. Vice President Raquel Peña will meet with the new Pope on 16 May during the scheduled diplomatic corps meeting.
The media in the DR is so abuzz with this new Pope for at least two big reasons. Number one is that many persons in the Dominican Republic have met this holy man since he visited La Vega on more than one occasion. He met with young and old alike on his visits and many people have photographs and memories of these visits. The second, and maybe the biggest reason, is that genealogists have traced his maternal grandfather back to the Dominican Republic. Joseph Norval Martinez moved to New Orleans in the very early part of the 20th Century and there he began the family that eventually produced the new pope.
Robert Francis Prevost Martinez is the 267th Roman Catholic Church Pope. He is the first US-born pope and the first of the Augustine order. He was born 14 September 1955 in Chicago, Illinois, USA to Louis Marius Prevost (New Orleans, USA) and Mildred Agnes Martinez (Spain). His maternal grandfather was Dominican citizen Joseph Norval Martinez. He has two brothers Louis Martin and John Joseph.
Pope Leo XIV is reported to have visited La Vega twice, once in 2004 for the 50th anniversary of the presence of the Augustine Order in the DR and then again, in his role of chief officer for the order. On both occasions, he held several encounters with the Augustine community.
Media reports around the world coincide that the choice of the US priest came as a surprise. Yet, Pope Leo XIV in recent years had the favor of his predecessor, beloved Pope Francisco. In retrospect, a read of his biography for the Vatican See points to his practically being pruned for the position by his predecessor.
After all his years in Peru, Prevost would take on the Peruvian nationality. On 30 January 2023, the Pope had called him to Rome as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, promoting him to the rank of Archbishop.
From that position, Cardinal Prevost had a leadership role and was well-known in Latin America and to the cardinals. As prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops in Latin America, he had the important task of selecting and supervising bishops.
A year later on 28 January 2024, Pope Francis made him a cardinal, assigning him the Diaconate of Saint Monica. Interestingly, the diaconate of Saint Monica is not a single physical location. Rather, it refers to the diaconate of the Augustinian Order, which includes the Chapel of Saint Monica located in Rome. Specifically, it is mentioned in the context of a gathering of deacons from around the world, who are welcomed at various churches in Rome, including the Chapel of Saint Monica.
The new Pope spent his childhood and adolescence with his family and studied first at the Minor Seminary of the Augustinian Fathers and then at the private Catholic university of the Augustine order, Villanova University in Pennsylvania, where in 1977 he earned a Degree in Mathematics and also studied Philosophy.
Reports are that he had been accepted to Harvard University to continue his studies, but instead answered a divine call for a vocation in religion. On 1 September 1977, Prevost 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.
The new pontiff 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).
In Rome, he was ordained a priest on 19 June 1982, at the Augustinian College of Saint Monica by Archbishop Jean Jadot, then pro-president of the Secretariat for Non-Christians, which later became the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and then the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue.
Prevost obtained his licentiate in 1984 and the following year, while preparing his doctoral thesis, was sent to the Augustinian mission in Chulucanas, Piura, Peru (1985–1986). In 1987, he defended his doctoral thesis on “The Role of the Local Prior in the Order of Saint Augustine” and was appointed vocation director and missions director of the Augustinian Province of “Mother of Good Counsel” in Olympia Fields, Illinois (USA).
The following year, he joined the mission in Trujillo, also in Peru, as director of the joint formation project for Augustinian candidates from the vicariates of Chulucanas, Iquitos, and Apurímac.
For 11 years, he served as prior of the community (1988–1992), formation director (1988–1998), and instructor for professed members (1992–1998), and in the Archdiocese of Trujillo as judicial vicar (1989–1998) and professor of Canon Law, Patristics, and Moral Theology at the Major Seminary “San Carlos y San Marcelo.” At the same time, he was also entrusted with the pastoral care of Our Lady Mother of the Church, later established as the parish of Saint Rita (1988–1999), in a poor suburb of the city, and was parish administrator of Our Lady of Monserrat from 1992 to 1999.
In 1999, he was elected Provincial Prior of the Augustinian Province of “Mother of Good Counsel” in Chicago, and two and a half years later, the ordinary General Chapter of the Order of Saint Augustine, elected him as Prior General, confirming him in 2007 for a second term.
In October 2013, he returned to his Augustinian Province in Chicago, serving as director of formation at the Saint Augustine Convent, first councilor, and provincial vicar—roles he held until Pope Francis appointed him on 3 November 2014, as Apostolic Administrator of the Peruvian Diocese of Chiclayo, elevating him to the episcopal dignity as Titular Bishop of Sufar.
He entered the Diocese on 7 November 2014, in the presence of Apostolic Nuncio James Patrick Green, who ordained him Bishop just over a month later, on 12 December, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, in the Cathedral of Saint Mary.
On 26 September 2015, he was appointed Bishop of Chiclayo by the late Pope Francis. In March 2018, he was elected second vice-president of the Peruvian Episcopal Conference, where he also served as a member of the Economic Council and president of the Commission for Culture and Education.
In 2019, Pope Francis appointed him a member of the Congregation for the Clergy (13 July 2019), and in 2020, a member of the Congregation for Bishops (21 November). Meanwhile, on 15 April 2020, he was also appointed Apostolic Administrator of the Peruvian Diocese of Callao.
On 30 January 2023, the Pope called him to Rome as Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and President of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, promoting him to the rank of Archbishop.
The late Pope Francis created the position of Cardinal in the Consistory of 30 September 2023 and assigned Prevost the Diaconate of Saint Monica. He officially took possession of it on January 28, 2024.
As head of the Dicastery, he participated in the Pope’s most recent Apostolic Journeys and in both the first and second sessions of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on synodality, held in Rome from 4 to 29 October 2023, and from 2 to 27 October 2024, respectively.
Meanwhile, on 4 October 2023, the late Pope Francis appointed him as a member of the Dicasteries for Evangelization (Section for First Evangelization and New Particular Churches), for the Doctrine of the Faith, for the Eastern Churches, for the Clergy, for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, for Culture and Education, for Legislative Texts, and of the Pontifical Commission for the Vatican City State.
On 6 February 2025, the late Argentine Pope promoted him to the Order of Bishops, granting him the title of the Suburbicarian Church of Albano.
Three days later, on 9 February 2025, he celebrated the Mass presided over by Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square for the Jubilee of the Armed Forces, the second major event of the Holy Year of Hope. During the most recent hospitalization of his predecessor at the “Gemelli” hospital, Prevost presided over the Rosary for Pope Francis’s health in Saint Peter’s Square on 3 March.
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12 May 2025