Robert Prevost became the Catholic Pope after the death of Pope Francis. Which of the following statements is/are correct about him? 1. He will now be known as Leo XV. 2. He became the 271st Catholic Pope. 3. He is a dual citizen of the United States of America and Peru. Select the answer using the code given below:

Q: What is the answer to CDS (II) 2025 GK Q113?

D. Correct — D, 3 only. The item works by putting two near-miss numbers next to one true fact. Robert Francis Prevost was elected on 8 May 2025 following the death of Pope Francis, and took the name Leo XIV — the first Leo since Leo XIII, who reigned from 1878 to 1903 and is remembered for Rerum Novarum. So statement 1 is off by one, and deliberately: 'Leo XV' is what a candidate half-remembering the name would write. Statement 2 is off by four. Francis was the 266th pope, so his successor is the 267th; 271 is not a count that corresponds to anything in the succession. Statement 3 is correct and is the substantive fact of the election: Prevost is the first pope born in the United States — Chicago, 1955 — and also holds Peruvian citizenship, acquired in 2015, after long service as a missionary and later Bishop of Chiclayo in northern Peru. Only the third statement survives. (Provisional — pending the official UPSC key.)

(a)1 and 2
(b)2 and 3
(c)1 only
(d)3 only

Answer

Why

Correct — D, 3 only. The item works by putting two near-miss numbers next to one true fact. Robert Francis Prevost was elected on 8 May 2025 following the death of Pope Francis, and took the name Leo XIV — the first Leo since Leo XIII, who reigned from 1878 to 1903 and is remembered for Rerum Novarum. So statement 1 is off by one, and deliberately: 'Leo XV' is what a candidate half-remembering the name would write. Statement 2 is off by four. Francis was the 266th pope, so his successor is the 267th; 271 is not a count that corresponds to anything in the succession. Statement 3 is correct and is the substantive fact of the election: Prevost is the first pope born in the United States — Chicago, 1955 — and also holds Peruvian citizenship, acquired in 2015, after long service as a missionary and later Bishop of Chiclayo in northern Peru. Only the third statement survives.

Why the others are wrong

(a)1 and 2 — Accepts both wrong numbers and rejects the one true statement — the exact inverse of the correct reading.
(b)2 and 3 — The most tempting wrong option, because statement 3 is right and 271 sounds like the sort of number one would not invent. The count is 267.
(c)1 only — Takes the regnal name as correct when it is the one detail most likely to be misremembered. He is Leo XIV.

Concept

A papal regnal name is chosen by the new pope and signals continuity with a predecessor. Choosing Leo pointed back to Leo XIII, whose 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum founded modern Catholic social teaching on labour, wages and the rights of workers — a signal about the concerns of the new pontificate rather than a mere preference.

Two things made this election notable enough for an exam. First, nationality: no pope had previously been born in the United States, and the College of Cardinals had long been thought unlikely to choose an American for reasons of geopolitical balance. Second, the Latin American connection that made it possible — Prevost spent much of his career in Peru as an Augustinian missionary, seminary teacher and then Bishop of Chiclayo, took Peruvian citizenship in 2015, and was brought to Rome by Francis as Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, the office that shapes episcopal appointments worldwide. His dual nationality is therefore not a curiosity but the biography that explains the election. Francis, his predecessor, was himself the first pope from the Americas and the first Jesuit; the shift of the Church's centre of gravity towards the global South is the thread joining the two.

Key facts

Robert Francis Prevost was elected on 8 May 2025 and took the name Leo XIV.
He is the 267th pope; Francis was the 266th.
He is the first pope born in the United States, in Chicago in 1955, and holds Peruvian citizenship acquired in 2015.
He served as an Augustinian missionary and later Bishop of Chiclayo in Peru, then as Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops.
The previous Leo, Leo XIII (1878-1903), issued Rerum Novarum, the foundation of modern Catholic social teaching.

Study next

The papal conclave — procedure, two-thirds majority, the cardinal electors and the age limit of 80Vatican City as a sovereign state and the Holy See's diplomatic statusRerum Novarum and Catholic social teachingRecent popes: Paul VI, John Paul I, John Paul II, Benedict XVI, Francis, Leo XIVIndia-Holy See relations and the Christian denominations in India

Common traps

Getting the regnal number wrong by one. It is Leo XIV, following Leo XIII.
Accepting an unfamiliar ordinal because it looks too specific to be invented. 271 is not the count; 267 is.
Assuming 'first American pope' rules out another nationality. He is a dual citizen, which is the point of statement 3.

As a three-statement current-affairs item in which two statements are numerically close to the truth and one is plainly checkable. The technique rewards precision over recognition.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Practice

practice — not a real PYQ
Pope Leo XIV, elected in 2025, was formerly a bishop in which country?
- (a)Argentina
- (b)Peru
- (c)Mexico
- (d)Philippines
Answer(b) Peru — he was Bishop of Chiclayo and took Peruvian citizenship in 2015.
practice — not a real PYQ
The encyclical Rerum Novarum, foundational to Catholic social teaching, was issued by:
- (a)Pope Pius X
- (b)Pope Leo XIII
- (c)Pope John XXIII
- (d)Pope Paul VI
Answer(b) Pope Leo XIII, in 1891 — the predecessor whose name Leo XIV invoked.