Robert Francis Prevost

Within the Episcopal Conference of Peru, Prevost served on the permanent council for the 2018 to 2020 term. He was elected in 2019 as president of its Commission for Education and Culture. He was also a member of the leadership of Caritas Peru. Prevost had a private audience with Pope Francis on March 1, 2021, fueling speculation of a new assignment either in Chicago or Rome.

In March 2021, The Pillar reported that in 2000 Prevost, then provincial of the Province of Chicago, allowed James Ray, a priest who sexually abused minors, to reside at St. John Stone Friary in Chicago, despite its close proximity to St. Thomas the Apostle School. The Augustinians did not notify the school administrators about Ray.

On July 13, 2019, Prevost was appointed a member of the Congregation for the Clergy. On April 15, 2020, he was named apostolic administrator of Callao in Peru. On November 21, 2020, Pope Francis named him a member of the Congregation for Bishops.

On November 3, 2014, Pope Francis appointed Prevost as apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Chiclayo and titular bishop of Sufar. He received his episcopal consecration on December 12, 2014. On September 26, 2015, he was named bishop of Chiclayo.

In 1998, Prevost was elected provincial of the Augustinian Province of Chicago and returned to the United States to assume that position on March 8, 1999. In 2001, he was elected to a six-year term as prior general of the Augustinians. He was elected to a second six-year term in 2007. From 2013 to 2014, Prevost was director of formation in the Convent of St. Augustine in Chicago, as well as first councilor and provincial vicar of the Province of Our Mother of Good Counsel, which covers the midwestern United States.

Prevost joined the Augustinian mission in Peru in 1985 and served as chancellor of the Territorial Prélature of Chulucanas from 1985 to 1986. He spent the year 1987 to 1988 in the United States as pastor for vocations and director of missions for the Augustinian Province of Chicago. He then returned to Peru, spending the next ten years heading the Augustinian seminary in Trujillo and teaching canon law in the diocesan seminary, where he was also prefect of studies. He served as judge of the regional ecclesiastical court and a member of the College of Consultors of Trujillo. He also led a congregation on the outskirts of the city.

Prevost was ordained a priest for the Order of St. Augustine in Rome on June 19, 1982. He earned a degree in canon law from the Pontifical College of St. Thomas Acquinas in Rome in 1985.

Robert Francis Prevost, O.S.A. (born September 14, 1955) is a U.S-born prelate of the Catholic Church who has served as bishop of the Diocese of Chiclayo in Peru, since 2015. A member of the Order of St. Augustine, he worked in Peru from 1985 to 1986 and from 1988 to 1998 as a parish pastor, diocesan official, seminary teacher and administrator. Prevost headed his order from its headquarters in Rome from 2001 to 2013. He spent the years 1987 to 1988 and 1998 to 2001 in the United States, based in Chicago.

Robert Francis Prevost was born in Chicago on September 14, 1955. He completed his secondary studies at the minor seminary of the Order of St. Augustine in 1973. Prevost earned a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics at Villanova University in 1977. He joined the Augustinians on September 1, 1977, took his first vows on September 2, 1978, and took his solemn vows on August 29, 1981. The following year he obtained a Master of Divinity degree from Catholic Theological Union in Chicago.