Pope Leo XIV will lead the Catholic Church at a time when divisions over immigration and culture are on the rise. But those who knew him as a younger man say his path to the papacy has prepared him.
CHICAGO – At St. Mary of the Assumption school in Chicago’s southern suburbs, Robert Prevost was quiet, kind and studious. Mostly, he wanted to be a priest.
It was the 1960s, and the parish school was a hub for Catholic families in the working-class neighborhood. Fathers worked for railroads or steel mills. Mothers volunteered at school. Children’s friends were mostly within biking distance. It was a safe, small world.
Prevost was so dedicated to becoming a priest, his brother would tease him about being the pope.
By the time his small class graduated from the eighth grade in 1969, many had jettisoned the idea of becoming a priest or nun, according to former classmates. Prevost never wavered. Instead of the local high school, he went to a seminary.
Earlier this week, former classmates of the since-shuttered parish school saw their text messages light up as white smoke poured from the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican and they heard the unlikely news.
The boy who played Little League. The boy who grew up following the Chicago White Sox. The boy some simply knew as Bobby had been elected as Pope Leo XIV.
The first U.S.-born pope, no less.
“Oh my God, he’s actually the pope,” said Marianne Angarola, 69, a former classmate who was proud to have shared her early parish experiences with the new pontiff.
While Pope Leo XIV spent years as a priest in Peru before rising to become a cardinal with a key post at the Vatican, many Americans, particularly in Chicago, have reveled in his reputation for standing up for the disenfranchised and his relatable roots. An Augustinian. A Villanova grad. A baseball fan.
And now, the leader of 1.4 billion Catholics across the globe.
The new pope takes the helm of the Catholic Church at a time when global conflict and divides over immigration, politics and culture are on the rise.
But those who knew him as a younger man say his path to the papacy has equipped him well for the challenges ahead.
“He was kind and he was good,” Angarola said. “And he was very smart.”
Pope Leo XIV has Chicago-area parish roots
Leo was born Robert Francis Prevost in 1955 at Mercy Hospital, about three miles south of the city’s iconic downtown Loop area. He grew up in Dolton, just south of Chicago.
His parents had been living in a 1,200-square-foot brick house purchased in 1949 on a $42 monthly mortgage, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
His late father, Louis, was an educator who led the Glenwood School District. His late mother, Mildred, worked as a librarian and was devoted to St. Mary the Assumption Parish, located in nearby Riverdale.
“Everybody was friends with each other. And in such a small school, it was a very family-oriented parish,” Angarola said. Girls and boys were largely educated in separate classes.
Peggy Wurtz, 69, another classmate, recalled Leo singing during Mass on Christmas Eve. “Robert was just always a gentle soul” with a calm demeanor and serene smile, she said.
During a fifth-grade science fair, Wurtz set up her project on tooth decay next to his. After struggling to answer some questions from a judge, she watched him win first prize.
“I didn’t want to look stupid in front of him, even though he would never have judged me or said anything,” she said. “His intelligence intimidated me.”
His brother, Louis Prevost, said that when Leo was 6, he would try to “play priest” with his brothers and give out communion, but his brothers just wanted to play tag.
Others said Leo’s devotion made them predict he would become a priest and even rise in the ranks.
“We’re all making our first Holy Communion, first confession. So we’re getting sacraments, which is a big deal. And yet he appeared to have a closer relationship to God than the rest of us did,” Angarola said.
John Doughney, 69, a classmate and fellow altar boy through eighth grade, said the close-knit parish family and neighbors were formative for the new pope.
“He was serious about this path,” Doughney said, adding that “none of us ever gave any consideration that one of us would be pope.”
From Chicago to Peru
The Rev. William Lego met Leo as kids when Augustinian representatives went to grammar schools to invite young men to consider becoming priests.
“I brought the brochure home, and my mother says, ‘Well, you’re not doing anything for the week. Why don’t you go?’ he recalled in an interview with USA TODAY. “Well, when I went, that’s where I first met the new pope.”
They lived across town.
“I’m a North sider,” he said. “The pope is a South sider.”
But both wound up attending St. Augustine Catholic Seminary boarding school in Michigan, studying at Villanova University in Philadelphia and earning divinity degrees together at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago.
Leo “had a social justice bent,” said Lego, who is now a pastor of Chicago’s St. Turibius Parish.
At age 27, Leo was chosen to study in Rome, according to the Vatican, where he was ordained a priest. In 1985, he was sent to the Augustinian mission in Peru. In 2015, he was appointed Bishop of Chiclayo by Pope Francis.
He became a dual national because Peru requires it for those named as bishops, said Lego, who also worked in Peru.
Leo’s ascension resurfaced concerns about his record on clergy sexual abuse during his tenure in Peru as well as Chicago, including that he failed to do enough to address victims’ allegations, USA TODAY has reported. The Vatican has denied he engaged in any wrongdoing, and the former cardinal has drawn plaudits in other cases for helping address abuse threats.
In the last few years, he took over the Vatican office that oversees bishop nominations, was made an archbishop and, last year, a cardinal. But he’d often come back to Chicago and get together with Lego, his old friend.
Lego said he’ll make a strong and capable leader able to navigate global affairs.
“He always takes all sides into consideration,” Lego said. “He spends time in prayer before he makes a decision.”
U.S.-born pope brings surprise, pride
Earlier this week, in a different suburb of Chicago, Leo’s other brother, John Prevost, was among those waiting for the 133 cardinals in the two-day conclave to choose the late-Pope Francis‘ successor.
He “kept hearing there will never be an American pope” because of outsized U.S. geopolitical power, he told ABC. He talked to his brother on the phone days earlier, and he had downplayed the possibility he’d be in the running.
On Thursday, John Prevost got a text saying there had been white smoke. He turned on his TV. Then he heard the name.
“Oh my gosh, here we go,” John Prevost said, saying he’d been inundated ever since. He described the new pope as “a regular, run-of-the-mill person” whose history of missionary work would likely mean he would continue to advocate for the disenfranchised, poor and voiceless.
Louis Prevost, who lives in Florida, said he is equal parts excited, happy, mind blown and a little worried about how the newfound papacy will impact his relationship with his little brother.
He and his wife are planning on making it out to the Vatican soon. He hopes that his brother will be able to bring the Catholic Church together in his new role as the pope and continue to grow the church.
Angarola said she welcomed his history of advocating for marginalized people. “It’s never been more important than it is now,” she said.
Wurtz said he was also moderate and level-headed. “They picked the perfect person,” she said.
In Chicago, at Holy Name Cathedral Mass on Thursday, the rector announced who the pope was a U.S. -born man from Chicago. The crowd erupted in applause, the Chicago Tribune reported, as a wave of pride swept over the city’s Catholic community.
“Everything dope, including the Pope, comes from Chicago!” Mayor Brandon Johnson posted on X. “We hope to welcome you back home soon.”
Others made their way to the neighborhood to see where Leo grew up, including Aggie Veld, who drove around 50 miles from Central Illinois. She said she fell away from the church as she grew up but Francis brought her back.
“I just wanted to come see his old haunts. He’s very real, having come from Chicago and ministered at ground zero,” said Veld, gesturing to the now-closed St. Mary of the Assumption church. “Talk about humble roots.”
New pope brings new hope to old neighborhood
Inside St. Mary, the chapel sat empty with graffiti on its walls and the pews cleared out after closing more than a decade earlier. Light streamed through a hole in the ceiling near stained glass windows as former parishioners and neighbors visited the site.
Tommie D. Davis brought along his 13-year-old twins Darryl and Darnell. He said he “nearly broke down in tears at the joy I had” upon hearing the news of the new pope.
The family isn’t Catholic but identifies as Christian and in both Francis and Leo he sees an approach to faith that reminds him of his own.
“We’re too busy looking at color and creed. It’s time for that to end and this pope is going to do that like Francis did,” Davis said. “If they can keep us apart they can break us, but not when we’re together.”
He hopes his boys have a new hero to look up to, one from the neighborhood this time. “I always tell them to put God first and follow positive leaders— like Pope Leo,” he said.
Also visiting – after Bobby from the neighborhood was elected pope – was Donna Novak, who grew up in Dolton and whose brothers were friends with the young Leo.
“I just screamed,” Novak said of the moment she found out. She was at work at Berkot’s Super Foods watching the live stream from the Vatican on the phone when her older brothers’ friend became the new pope. “Overjoyed and proud, that’s what we are.”
It was just the latest special moment for Novak and her ties to the church in which she grew up and where she later met her husband. He winked at her coming back from communion, and that was the start of it.
Asked if Bobby would approve, she laughed: “Yes, he was such a calming person, so peaceful, so serene, so with God.”
Contributing: Melissa Pérez-Carrillo, Sarasota Herald-Tribune
