On May 8, Robert Francis Prevost made history as the first pope from the United States but his experience goes well beyond his Chicago roots.
And he already has a keen grasp of the inner workings of the Vatican, thanks to two years in a powerful role within the Roman Curia.
But the quiet, understated American has already signalled a change in style with the charismatic and impulsive Argentine.
Playing priest
From an early age, the future Leo played priest, buying candy discs to use as communion wafers and passing them out to other neighbourhood children, according to his older brother, Louis.
Prevost attended a minor Augustinian seminary in St Louis as a novice, going onto take a mathematics degree from Philadelphia's Villanova University, an Augustinian institution.
An early sign of his global outlook came when he spoke Spanish from the balcony of St Peter's Basilica just minutes after being elected pope.
He also had a big appetite for the local dish of chicharron, fried pork belly or chicken, and ceviche, or marinated raw fish.
An early perk of the job came this week when he met with world men's number one Jannik Sinner, who gave him a raquet and suggested a quick rally in the sumptuous setting.
'Can't turn back'
In 2023, he was appointed by Francis to lead the Dicastery for Bishops, a key Vatican department that advises the pontiff on appointments, and later that year was made a cardinal.
His awareness of global Church challenges was honed by two consecutive terms as the global head of the Augustinians, a mendicant order keenly focused on missionary work and charity.
After Francis’s 12-year papacy, which was marked by reforms but also divisions within the Church, the then Cardinal Prevost said there was “still so much to do”.
“We have to see how the Holy Spirit wants the Church to be today and tomorrow, because today’s world, in which the Church lives, is not the same as the world of ten or 20 years ago.
“The message is always the same: proclaim Jesus Christ, proclaim the Gospel, but the way to reach today’s people, young people, the poor, politicians, is different,“ he said.
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