At Catholic elementary colleges in Chicago on Thursday afternoon, the intercoms crackled with a shock announcement — “Habemus papam!” — prompting college students to leap on their chairs and whoop with pleasure.
Crowds materialized outdoors Holy Identify Cathedral downtown, thought-about the mom church of Chicago Catholics, and staff hung yellow and white bunting over the arched doorway.
Throughout the nation, Catholics marveled on the announcement of the primary American pope, one thing that had lengthy appeared unimaginable. However in Chicago, they heard one thing else: The pope was certainly one of their very own.
Although he spent a lot of his life overseas, the brand new Pope Leo XIV, born Robert Francis Prevost, hails from the Chicago space, the place he grew up in a suburb simply south of the town and attended a Catholic church and faculty on Chicago’s South Facet.
In Chicago, he was largely unknown till the announcement got here on Thursday.
Wes Rehwoldt, who attended St. Augustine Seminary Excessive Faculty after which Villanova College with the pope, stated he thought the native information in Chicago may need been overplaying the likelihood that his former classmate could possibly be chosen. Then he heard the identify on tv.
“I cried,” stated Mr. Rehwoldt, 69. “We actually didn’t assume there was a giant probability that that was going to occur, till the announcement got here and so they stated ‘Robert Francis’ — and I couldn’t hear the rest.”
Chicagoans rapidly tried to determine the place Pope Leo XIV match into their huge, sophisticated metropolis, which is dwelling to a whole bunch of 1000’s of Catholics. Was he a fan of the White Sox or the Cubs? Was he from the town or the suburbs? Extra crucially, the place did he attend church as a boy?
“Nobody in Chicago might loosen up till they knew which parish he was from,” stated Bridget Gainer, a Cook dinner County commissioner and member of a big South Facet Catholic household. “As a result of then I do know 85 p.c of what I have to find out about him.”
Pope Leo XIV’s household belonged to the now-shuttered St. Mary of the Assumption Parish within the Riverdale neighborhood on the South Facet of Chicago, then populated by throngs of Catholic households. His father, Louis Prevost, was a faculty superintendent in Cook dinner County. His mom, Mildred Prevost, was a librarian and deeply concerned in parish life, serving because the president of the St. Mary Altar and Rosary Society, in response to her loss of life discover in 1990.
Noelle Neis remembers sitting in entrance of the Prevost household each Sunday at 9:15 a.m. Mass as a baby at St. Mary’s.
“You’d sort of all the time go to the identical Mass and file in the identical pew,” stated Ms. Neis, 69, who lives within the Chicago suburbs. “They had been all the time there.”
John Prevost, a brother of the pope who lives within the Chicago suburb of New Lenox, Ailing., stated that Pope Leo XIV grew into an individual who might comply with within the footsteps of Pope Francis, his predecessor.
“My brother has nice, nice need to assist the downtrodden and the disenfranchised, the people who find themselves ignored,” he stated from an interview in his dwelling. “I feel they’ll see nice similarities there. He’s easy, actually. He’s not going to exit for a 19-course meal.”
Most of the Catholic establishments that the pope attended as a baby at the moment are closed. The variety of parishes within the Archdiocese of Chicago dwindled to 216 by 2024, from 445 within the mid-Nineteen Seventies.
The realm the place the pope grew up has modified dramatically within the many years since he left. In Dolton, the small suburb hugging Chicago the place the Prevost household lived, 94 p.c of residents had been white and a couple of p.c had been Black in 1980. By the 2010 census, 5 p.c of Dolton residents had been white and 90 p.c had been Black.
Ms. Neis stated she hoped the choice of an American pope, significantly one from the Chicago space, might assist revitalize the Catholic Church.
“Perhaps individuals will really feel extra related, as a result of he’s certainly one of ours,” she stated. “He’s an American. He’s a Chicagoan.”
Marianne Angarola, who attended Catholic grade faculty with the pope, stated he was a robust pupil who was sensible, form and well-behaved, although not a lot of an athlete. She stated it was clear even then that he was destined for a profession within the priesthood.
“Everybody knew surely that he was destined for rising by the ranks of the Catholic Church,” she stated. “He had a calling at a really early age.”
By the point the newly elected pope reached adolescence, he was trying towards the priesthood, enrolling in St. Augustine Seminary Excessive Faculty close to Holland, Mich., a boarding faculty for boys.
There, he lived within the Augustinian custom, with its intense concentrate on neighborhood: consuming collectively, learning collectively, sharing every thing about their lives.
The brand new pope then studied at Villanova College in Pennsylvania, incomes a Bachelor of Science in arithmetic in 1977, earlier than returning to Chicago to attend Catholic Theological Union, a graduate faculty, and earn a divinity diploma.
The Rev. William Lego, pastor of a parish on the South Facet of Chicago, knew him since their highschool days.
He noticed a number of Chicago in his previous pal, significantly his sense of social justice and devotion to the poor.
However Father Lego stated that the brand new pope had spent a lot time overseas, his perspective on the world was unusually broad.
“He’s very clever, very ordered,” he stated. “He has an excellent judgment of right and wrong.”
The pope retained ties to Illinois all through his life, returning at varied factors for postings with the Augustinians. He has continued to vote in his dwelling state, public information present, together with casting an absentee poll within the November presidential election. In response to information from Will County, in suburban Chicago, the pope has voted in three Republican primaries since 2012 and no Democratic primaries in that point. He most just lately voted in a Republican major in 2016.
The Archdiocese of Chicago serves roughly two million Catholics in Cook dinner and Lake Counties, which is a few third of the counties’ inhabitants.
Mayor Brandon Johnson of Chicago celebrated the day as “one of many greatest moments within the trendy historical past of our metropolis.”
“Pope Leo XIV will likely be a champion for staff everywhere in the world,” he stated. “It’s solely proper that he was born and educated in probably the most pro-worker metropolis in America. The Catholic Church has a robust custom of standing up for the poor and the weak, and I do know that Pope Leo XIV will proceed that custom.”
Exterior Holy Identify Cathedral, Father Gregory Sakowicz stated he was “fortunately shocked” {that a} cardinal from Chicago was elected — one thing he realized throughout Mass on Thursday.
“A girl I used to be giving Holy Communion to stated, ‘The brand new Pope is Cardinal Robert Prevost’ and I stated ‘Physique of Christ,’” he recalled, “after which stated ‘Thanks for sharing that.’”
Robert Chiarito contributed reporting. Susan C. Beachy contributed analysis.
