Title
Honoring the election of Pope Leo XIV as the 267th Pope and celebrating his connections to the Philadelphia area.
Body
WHEREAS, Pope Leo XIV was born Robert Francis Prevost in Chicago on September 14, 1955 to Mildred Anges Prevost and Louis Marius Prevost; and
WHEREAS, Raised in Dolton, Illinois, Prevost and his family joined the parish of St. Mary of the Assumption. Here Pope Leo XIV laid the foundation of his catholic faith while attending the church’s school, singing in the choir, and serving as an altar boy; and
WHEREAS, Prevost then moved to the Philadelphia suburbs to attend Villanova University to study mathematics. During this period he frequently visited churches in the Philadelphia area, and also worked during the summer months at Saint Denis Parish in Havertown; and
WHEREAS, Following his graduation from Villanova in 1977, the future Pontiff returned to Chicago to receive his theological education at the Catholic Theological Union, which marked his entrance into the priesthood. Shortly thereafter, he was sent to Rome to study Canon Law at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, where he received both licentiate and doctoral degrees; and
WHEREAS, The future Pontiff then joined the Augustinian order and took part in a mission in Peru in 1985. While in Peru, Prevost led an Augustinian seminary in Trujillo, and taught canon law. Over the course of eleven years he served many roles in Trujillo including as a professor of Canon Law Patristics, and Moral Theology; and
WHEREAS, In the late 1990s, the future Pontiff returned to his hometown of Chicago after being elected as Provincial Prior of the Augustinian Province of “Mother of Good Counsel” in Chicago before subsequently being elected as Prior General of the General Chapter of the Order of Saint Augustine; and
WHEREAS, In October 2013, he returned to his Augustinian Province in Chicago, serving as director of formation at the Saint Augustine Convent; and
WHEREAS, The future Pontiff held this position for several years until Pope Francis appointed him to be the Apolistic Administrator of the Peruvian Diocese of Chiclayo, elevating him to the role of Titular Bishop of Sufar; and
WHEREAS, On September 26, 2015 he was appointed to become the Bishop of Chiclayo by Pope Francis; and
WHEREAS, In 2023, the future Pontiff returned to Rome upon his promotion to the rank of Archbishop and appointment as Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, where he evaluated and maintained the ranks of Bishops across the Church; and
WHEREAS, He was promoted to the rank of Cardinal in the Consistory later that year, and assigned to the Diaconate of Saint Monica in Rome. In this role, he celebrated a number of masses and gatherings with Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City; and
WHEREAS, In his role as head of the Dicastery, he participated in both sessions of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on Synodality; and
WHEREAS, With the death of Pope Francis, the College of Cardinals held a Papal Conclave to elect a new pope. The over 130 cardinals held several elections and, after the fourth ballot the conclave, elected Robert Prevost to become the 267th Bishop of Rome; and
WHEREAS, The Pontiff chose the name Leo XIV in Honor of Pope Leo XIII to continue the Papal tradition of championing workers rights and social causes. He has explained that “Pope Leo XIII in his historic Encyclical Rerum Novarum addressed the social question in the context of the first great industrial revolution. In our own day, the Church offers to everyone the treasury of her social teaching in response to another industrial revolution and to developments in the field of artificial intelligence that pose new challenges for the defence of human dignity, justice and labour”; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, That the City honors the election of Pope Leo XIV as the 267th Pope and celebrates his connections to the Philadelphia area.
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