Pope Francis continued the generational turnover in the Roman Curia and appointed an American missionary bishop as the Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops. Robert Francis Prevost, an Augustinian friar and bishop of Chiclayo will take the place of Cardinal Marc Ouellet at the helm of the dicastery that selects bishops from around the world (except for the one in Propaganda Fide territory) and at the presidency of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.

Bishop Prevost will take office on April 12, 2023. An Augustinian missionary, he has served as bishop of the Diocese of Chiclayo in Peru since 2015 but is a native of Chicago. Unusually for a simple bishop, he had recently been appointed by Pope Francis as a member of both the Congregation for Bishops and the Congregation for the Clergy, a sign of the pope’s particular fondness for his work.

Born in 1955, an Augustinian novice since 1977, and a priest since 1982, he was a missionary in Peru from 1985 to 1999, when he returned to Chicago as a provincial of the local Augustinian province.

From 2001 to 2013, he was the prior general of the Order of St. Augustine for two six-year terms. From 2013 to 2014, before he was appointed apostolic administrator and then bishop of Chiclayo, he was director of the formation at St. Augustine’s Convent in Chicago, first counselor and vicar provincial of the province of Our Lady of Good Counsel.

He takes the place of Cardinal Marc Ouellet, who leaves the post at nearly 79 years old, three and a half beyond the “retirement” date that is set at 75. Ouellet had led the dicastery since 2010.