The 30 of January 2023, the Holy See announced in a brief communiqué that the Prior General of the Order of St. Augustine from 2001 to 2013, Fr. Robert Prevost, will be the new Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and President of the Commission for Latin America
He is currently serving as bishop of Chiclayo, Peru. At the same time as this appointment in the Vatican, the Holy Father conferred on him the title of Archbishop Emeritus of Chiclayo after accepting the resignation of cardinal Marc Ouellet, who had passed the age limit, in the same positions which Father Prevost will now assume.
He is scheduled to take office on 12 April 2023.
About Bishop Prevost
Bishop Robert Francis Prevost, 67, born in Chicago, Illinois (USA), on September 14, 1955, entered the novitiate of the Order of St. Augustine (OSA) in 1977, in the Province of Our Lady of Good Counsel in St. Louis. He took his solemn vows on August 29, 1981. He studied at Catholic Theological Union,- Chicago, where he graduated with a degree in theology.
At the age of 27, he was sent by the Order to Rome to study Canon Law at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (the Angelicum). He was ordained priest on 19 June 1982. He obtained his Licentiate in 1984, then was sent to work in the mission of Chulucanas, Piura-Peru (1985-1986).
In 1987 he obtained his doctorate with the thesis: "The role of the local prior of the Order of St. Augustine". That same year he was elected Director of Vocations and Director of Missions of the Augustinian Province 'Mother of Good Counsel' of Olympia Fields, Illinois (USA). In 1988 he was sent to the mission of Trujillo as director of the common formation project for the Augustinian aspirants of the vicariates of Chulucanas, Iquitos and Apurimac. There, he was prior of the community (1988-1992), director of formation (1988-1998) and professor of the professed (1992-1998). In the Archdiocese of Trujillo he was judicial vicar (1989-1998), professor of Canon Law, Patristics and Morals in the Major Seminary "San Carlos y San Marcelo".
In 1999 he was elected Prior Provincial of his Province "Mother of Good Counsel" (Chicago). After two and a half years, the Ordinary General Chapter elected him Prior General, a ministry which the Order entrusted to him again at the Ordinary General Chapter of 2007. In October 2013 he returned to his Province (Chicago) to become Master of the Professed and Vicar Provincial, positions he held until Pope Francis appointed him Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Chiclayo (Peru) on 3 November 2014, elevating him to the episcopal dignity of titular bishop of the Diocese of Sufar. On 7 November he took canonical possession of the diocese in the presence of the Apostolic Nuncio James Patrick Green; he was ordained bishop on 12 December, feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, in the cathedral of his diocese. He has been titular bishop of Chiclayo since 26 September 2015. Pope Francis appointed him member of the Congregation for the Clergy in 2019 and member of the Congregation for Bishops in 2020.
All of us in the Order of St. Augustine we celebrate this new appointment of our former Father General. We beleive that his good work, performance and zeal will help the Church, its bishops and all the People of God to continue in the task of proclaiming the Gospel and the hope contained therein.