Illinois General Assembly - Full Text of HR0327

HR0327 LRB104 13556 MST 26071 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of Representatives wish to congratulate Pope Leo XIV on being elected the first American pope in the 2,000-year history of the Catholic Church; and

WHEREAS, Pope Leo XIV, formerly Cardinal Robert Prevost, was born to Louis Marius Prevost and Mildred Martínez at Chicago's Mercy Hospital in 1955; he has two brothers, Louis Martín and John Joseph; and

WHEREAS, Pope Leo XIV graduated from Villanova University in Pennsylvania with a degree in mathematics and then studied theology at the Catholic Theological Union of Chicago; and

WHEREAS, Pope Leo XIV was sent to Rome to study Canon Law at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) at the age of 27 and was ordained as a priest in 1982; and

WHEREAS, Pope Leo XIV then went to work as a missionary in Peru; he returned to the U.S. for a few years and then returned to Peru, where he ran an Augustinian seminary in Trujillo; and

WHEREAS, Pope Leo XIV was appointed apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Chiclayo in Peru in 2014 by Pope Francis, and one year later, he became a bishop; and

WHEREAS, Pope Leo XIV became a cardinal in 2023, and on February 6, 2025, he was promoted to his most recent position with the Order of Bishops; and

WHEREAS, Pope Leo XIV's first words as pope were, "Peace be with you."; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE HUNDRED FOURTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we congratulate Pope Leo XIV on being elected the first American pope in the 2,000-year history of the Catholic Church.