Pope Leo XIV’s father, Louis Marius Prevost, served at the US Navy during World War II.
Prevost was born on July 28, 1920, in Chicago, United States.
At the age of 23, after graduating from college, he was commissioned and became an executive officer of a tann -landing ship in November 1943.
Louis Marius Prevost participated in the D -Day landing in Normandy, France, on June 6, 1944, as part of Operation Overlord.
He also commanded an infantry disembarkation ship that allies used to disembark naval marine soldiers on the beaches during the war.
According to the US Department of Defense, Normandy’s coast had no port capacity for the huge amount of materials needed to maintain the drive ally.
Later, the Navy sent Prevost and other landing ships to southern France as part of Operation Dragon, which began on August 15, 1944. This forced the Germans to defend a second front, reducing their effectiveness.
In late August, the allies captured the French ports of Marseille and Toulon, using them immediately to land supplies and equipment.
In October 1944, more than a third of the allied cargo went through these ports.
Prevost spent 15 months abroad and reached the post of Lieutenant Junior before the end of World War II in Europe on May 8, 1945, according to the US Department of Defense.
When he returned, he became head of the Brookwood School District 167, an elementary school district in Glenwood, Illinois, and then director of the Mount Carmel Elementary School in Chicago.
He was also a catechist – a teacher of the principles of Christian religion.
Pope Leo XIV family
Prevost married Mildred Agnes Martinez on January 25, 1949.
Martinez worked as a librarian and like her husband, was also born in Chicago.
The couple had three children: John Joseph Prevost, a retired educator who lives in Chicago, Louis Martin Prevost, a navy veteran who lives in Florida and Robert Francis Prevost, Pope Leo XIV.
Robert Francis Prevost was elected the first American pope in history on May 8, 2025.
Martinez died on June 18, 1990, and Louis Marius Prevost died in Chicago on November 8, 1997.
*Under Malu Baccarin supervision
This content was originally published in Pope Leo XIV’s father served in the Navy during World War II on the CNN Brazil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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