Brian Roewe

6 days ago | ncronline.org | Brian Roewe

The world is still getting to know Pope Leo XIV, and that includes where he stands on environmental issues like climate change. Even with few details, environmentalists both within and outside the Catholic Church seem optimistic based on what they have learned so far about Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, the Augustinian friar and first successor to St. Peter from the United States.

1 week ago | ncronline.org | Catherine M. Odell |Heidi Schlumpf |Brian Fraga |Brian Roewe

Pope Leo XIV, the former Cardinal Robert F. Prevost, waves to the crowds in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican after his election as pope May 8, 2025. The new pope was born in Chicago. (CNS/Vatican Media) Although the choice of the name "Leo" may have taken the world by surprise as the American-born Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost chose his papal name on May 8, church historians familiar with the cardinal's career and the needs of the church were probably not surprised.

1 week ago | ncronline.org | Nathaniel Tinner |Heidi Schlumpf |Brian Fraga |Brian Roewe

The Catholic Church has a new leader, with the Augustinian Cardinal Robert Prevost elected as Pope Leo XIV, his chosen name as bishop of Rome. He is the first North American pope and, according to a prominent genealogist, a pope with African-Creole ancestry. The understated candidate triumphed on the second day of voting in a count kept under permanent Vatican seal.

1 week ago | globalsistersreport.org | Heidi Schlumpf |Christopher White |Brian Roewe

Pope Leo XIV, a Chicago-born Augustinian friar, is the first American pope in the history of the Roman Catholic church. The former Cardinal Robert Prevost, 69, who headed the influential Vatican Dicastery for Bishops, walked out onto the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica to the cheers of thousands of people gathering for the announcement at 7:15 p.m. Rome time today (May 8).

1 week ago | ncronline.org | Brian Roewe |Soli Salgado

Since the first Earth Day in 1970 and the birth of the modern environment movement, nearly every pope has turned attention toward matters of ecology — whether pollution, biodiversity loss, deforestation or climate change. Pope Paul VI warned humanity's exploitation of Earth's resources "risks provoking a veritable ecological catastrophe."Pope John Paul II stated "the ecological crisis is a moral issue" and warned of the long-term harms of burning fossil fuels.