One year after the historic election of the first American-born Pope, a growing number of documentaries are bringing his story to audiences around the world. From the Vatican's own film productions to specials by EWTN, ABC, and emerging Catholic streaming platforms, these works trace the life of Robert Francis Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV: an Augustinian priest, a missionary in Peru, a Vatican leader, and now the 267th Successor of Peter.
For The Pontifical Mission Societies, these documentaries about Pope Leo XIV are more than biographical portraits. They reveal a Pope whose life has been shaped by mission, by the encounter with the poor, and by a deeply Augustinian sense of community, themes that lie at the heart of TPMS's work today.
The interest in a Pope Leo XIV documentary is rooted in the extraordinary nature of his story. Elected on May 8, 2025, Robert Francis Prevost became the first Pope born in the United States and the first Augustinian friar to lead the universal Church. His path from Dolton, Illinois, to the See of Peter passes through more than a decade of missionary work in northern Peru, nearly two decades of service in Rome as Prior General of the Order of Saint Augustine, and a brief but influential tenure as Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops under Pope Francis.
Each of these chapters offers material for a different film. That is precisely why several documentaries on Pope Leo XIV have been produced in the first year of his pontificate, each illuminating a different stage of his life and ministry.
Released to mark the first anniversary of his pontificate, "Leone a Roma" is a new documentary by the Vatican's media outlets that retraces the nearly two decades Pope Leo XIV spent in Rome before his election to the See of Peter. The film premiered on May 8, 2026, exactly one year after the start of his Petrine ministry, and is available through Vatican Media's official channels.
The title, which means "Leo in Rome," reflects the focus of this Pope Leo XIV film: the journey of the first American-born Pope from his arrival in Rome from the United States in 1981 to his service as Prior General of the Order of Saint Augustine and later as Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops.
Rather than a chronological biography, the documentary gathers testimonies, images, and memories from those who shared parts of his Roman journey. The film highlights his spiritual life and pastoral closeness through testimonies from those who encountered him in places of devotion and ministry, from catechism classes in Cesano to prayer at the shrine of St. Rita in Cascia, the tomb of St. Augustine in Pavia, and the sanctuary of Our Lady of Good Counsel in Genazzano.
The portrait that emerges is that of a friend, pastor, and leader, with the Eternal City itself as the backdrop to a vocation that would eventually carry him to the Chair of Peter.
Before "Leone a Roma," the Vatican released a second documentary focused on the Pope's American roots. Released Nov. 10, 2025, the documentary "Leo from Chicago" chronicles the pope's humble beginnings in Dolton, Illinois, as well as his early years as an Augustinian.
According to the Vatican, the film retraces the story, family roots, studies, and Augustinian vocation of Robert Francis Prevost in his native United States. It is, as Vatican News journalist Salvatore Cernuzio described it, less a film about a famous figure than the story of an ordinary person who answered a calling to serve the Church.
This Pope Leo XIV Chicago documentary is freely available on the Vatican News YouTube channel and offers an essential complement to the Roman chapter told in "Leone a Roma."
The first film in the Vatican's trilogy on Pope Leo XIV is also, for The Pontifical Mission Societies, the most meaningful. "León de Perú" ("Leo of Peru") was released in June 2025, just weeks after the conclave, and focuses on the future Pope's missionary years in South America.
For nearly two decades, the then-Father Prevost served in northern Peru: first as a young missionary in Chulucanas, later as a formator in Trujillo, and ultimately as Bishop of Chiclayo. It is in those communities that he came to know firsthand the joys and challenges of the local Church in mission territories, the very places that TPMS supports through education, healthcare, and pastoral programs around the world.
"León de Perú" is the documentary that most directly illuminates the missionary heart of Pope Leo XIV, and it sets the stage for understanding why his pontificate places such a strong emphasis on the poor, on closeness to local communities, and on the universal mission of the Church.
Beyond the Vatican's own productions, several international broadcasters have produced their own films and specials about Pope Leo XIV.
EWTN released "Pope Leo's Peru" in May 2026, a one-hour documentary that revisits the communities the Pope served as a missionary and bishop. Jonathan Liedl, EWTN News correspondent and managing editor of the National Catholic Register, takes viewers to northern Peru to take a look at the communities the Holy Father served. These cities include Chulucanas, where the then-young priest had his first missionary experience; the city of Trujillo, where he grew as a pastor; and the Diocese of Chiclayo, where he served as bishop.
ABC, for its part, produced "The American Pope: Leo XIV", a special offering live coverage and reflection from the Vatican on the election of the first American Pope. For viewers searching for "the American Pope Leo XIV documentary", this is the broadcast network's contribution to the growing body of films on Pope Leo's life.
A further full-length project is also on the way. "Leo XIV: A Pontiff's Path", produced by Castletown Media (the team behind the acclaimed Carlo Acutis documentary), is scheduled to stream on the new Catholic platform CREDO. While many viewers searching for a "Pope Leo XIV movie" expect a feature film, what is actually emerging is a rich landscape of documentaries, each examining a different facet of the Pope's life and ministry.
For those wondering where to watch a Pope Leo XIV documentary, the options have multiplied over the past year:
The three Vatican-produced documentaries — "León de Perú," "Leo from Chicago," and "Leone a Roma" — are available on Vatican News' official channels, including its YouTube channel, and can also be requested by media organizations. "Pope Leo's Peru" airs on EWTN and is available on EWTNNews.com and the EWTN News YouTube channel. "The American Pope: Leo XIV" is available through ABC. "Leo XIV: A Pontiff's Path" will stream on the new CREDO platform later this year — making it one of the first Pope Leo XIV streaming documentaries released outside Vatican channels.
Whether viewers are searching for a Pope Leo XIV film about his Chicago origins, his Peruvian mission, or his Roman years, there is now a documentary for nearly every chapter of his journey.
Taken together, the films on Pope Leo XIV do more than recount the life of an individual. They sketch the portrait of a Church that is, by its very nature, missionary — a Church that crosses borders, that listens to local communities, and that finds in the poor and the marginalized not an object of charity but a place of encounter with Christ.
The image of Robert Francis Prevost arriving in Rome as a young Augustinian in 1981, serving in Peru's rural parishes, leading a global religious order, and finally guiding the universal Church, is the image of a vocation lived in motion, always at the service of mission. It is no coincidence that one of the first emphases of his pontificate has been the centrality of the missions and of the local Churches that animate them.
For The Pontifical Mission Societies, this is a profoundly familiar vision. As Father Tom McCarthy, an Augustinian who has known the Pope for over four decades, told Vatican News, the future Pope "could have had a great position in a diocese or a seminary. Instead of canon law and all those years of study, what did he choose? He chose the poor."
The documentaries about Pope Leo XIV remind us that the mission of the Church is carried forward not only through institutions, but through lives quietly transformed by the Gospel — lives like those that TPMS supports, day after day, in mission territories around the world.
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