CHICAGO — When Sherry Stone discovered that childhood good friend Robert Prevost was elected the 267th pope of the Roman Catholic Church on Thursday, she bought on her laptop and did what few folks can do: She emailed him a word of congratulations.
“I advised him we’re pondering of getting our subsequent grade college reunion on the Vatican,” she stated.
Newly elected Pope Leo XIV, Robert Prevost addressing the group from the primary central loggia balcony of the St Peter’s Basilica for the primary time, after the cardinals ended the conclave, in The Vatican. Might 8, 2025.
Vatican Media/AFP through Getty Pictures
The election of a former Hyde Parker named Barack Obama to the White Home in 2009 catapulted this metropolis right into a joyous frenzy for months, and having produced a president nonetheless stays a supply of satisfaction.
When information broke Thursday about Prevost’s election as the primary American pope, the temper all through the town was related. Instantly, memes went viral displaying Pope Leo XIV holding a scorching canine, dipping his Italian beef into gravy and gripping a bottle of Malort, the town’s unofficial liqueur. Outdoors Wrigley Subject, the Chicago Cubs marked the second by saying on its legendary signal: “Hey Chicago, He is a Cubs Fan!” Equally, Bennison’s, a bakery in Evanston, simply north of the town, introduced a brand new sugar cookie with Prevost’s likeness that it promised was “as divine because the second.”
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker launched an announcement calling the information “historic.”
“Pope Leo XIV ushers in a brand new chapter that I be a part of these in our state welcoming in at a time once we want compassion, unity, and peace,” he stated.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson used the information to ship a extra casual message to the brand new pope: “Every little thing dope, together with the pope, comes from Chicago!” he posted on X. “Congratulations to the primary American Pope Leo XIV! We hope to welcome you again dwelling quickly.”
Whereas Leo spent twenty years in northern Peru, the place he grew to become a bishop and a naturalized citizen, his early roots are within the southwest facet, an space identified for its legacy of metal mills and auto crops, White Sox and Blackhawks followers, rows of brick bungalows and neighborhood church buildings and grade faculties.
Born in Chicago in 1955, Leo attended St. Mary’s of the Assumption, a now-shuttered grade college on the town’s edge, and he grew up in Dolton, a southwest suburb positioned simply throughout the road from the college. He later earned his Grasp of Divinity in 1982 from Catholic Theological Union in Hyde Park, which is located alongside the lakefront, and was ordained the identical yr. He began his ministry with the Augustinian Province of Chicago and later was named prior normal of the worldwide Augustinian Order, in accordance with the Catholic Theological Union.
The Rev. William Lego, who can be a member of Augustinian Order, attended grade college, highschool and seminary with Leo earlier than each males grew to become younger monks. He stated on Thursday that he’s nonetheless getting used of calling “Father Bob” by his new identify.
“He was all the time very clever, by no means jumped to conclusions, he held folks with respect, and he listened. I am positive that is what he’ll carry to the papacy,” stated Lego.
As for his or her shared Chicago roots, Lego added, “There’ll all the time be a word of satisfaction.”
A bishop dances with a U.S. flag, after the announcement that U.S. Cardinal Robert Prevost has been elected by the conclave as new pope, with the identify Pope Leo XIV, on the Vatican, Might 8, 2025.
Eloisa Lopez/Reuters
As with Obama, many locals have a private reference to Leo. As a result of their final names each ended with a “P” on the time, Nadia Weer sat subsequent to Leo for eight years within the classroom. She stated even again then he was so religious and studious his nickname was “Father Robert.”
“We all the time assumed he can be a priest,” she stated. “He was true blue. He was good. I am actually pleased with him. You want folks to achieve success once they deserve it. And Robert does deserve it.”
The depth Leo had along with his religion, at the same time as a younger boy, impressed Stone, who stated he as soon as advised folks he wished to ultimately lead the church as pope.
“Midwest individuals are very even keeled. I feel having grown up in that surroundings that he’ll be a centralist pope. He’ll carry folks collectively. He’ll be one of many nice popes,” she stated.
Leo’s brother John Prevost advised ABC Information on Thursday that Leo by no means “questioned” his vocation in life and that, as a baby, he typically “performed priest” utilizing the ironing board as his altar.
“I do not assume he is ever considered anything,” John Prevost stated.
Many remembered Leo’s household as equally devoted to their religion. His father, a college principal on Chicago’s South Aspect, volunteered on the Archdiocese of Chicago within the Nineties. Janet Sisler, affiliate superintendent of faculties for the archdiocese on the time, remembered that “Father Bob” would cease by when he returned to his hometown.
It was apparent, there was “a household historical past of being devoted to their religion and devoted to service,” she stated. “He grew up in that life and continued to imbue his life selections with service of religion and the promotion of justice.”
Chicago’s roots within the labor motion had been probably an affect, as effectively.
“He got here from a household the place each his mom and father labored. He understood how folks can have a dedication to work and to household and to their religion,” she stated. “It is a new pope who understands the significance of neighborhood and the significance of church interacting in a constructive approach to serve the world.”
