Chicago – When Sherry Stone learned that Robert Prevost’s childhood friend was chosen as the 267th Roman Catholic Church on Thursday, he got his computer and did what some people could do: he sent him an email to a congratulatory letter.
“I told him that we were thinking about doing our elementary school reunion at the Vatican,” he said.
Pope Leo XIV who was just chosen, Robert Prevost spoke to the crowd from the Loggia Main Balcony of St. Peter Basilica for the first time, after the cardinals ended the conclave, in the Vatican. May 8, 2025.
Vatican Media/AFP via Getty Images
The election of a former Hyde Parker named Barack Obama to the White House in 2009 catapulted the city to be an encouraging madness for months, and after producing the president it remained a source of pride.
When the news broke out on Thursday about the selection of prevost as the first American Pope, moods throughout the same city. Immediately, the meme became viral that showed Pope Leo XIV holding a hot dog, dipping Italian beef into the sauce and gripping a bottle of malort, an unofficial city liquor. Outside the Wrigley Field, Chicago Cubs marked that moment by announcing his legendary sign: “Hey Chicago, he’s a Cubs fan!” Likewise, Bennison’s, a bakery in Evanston, right in the north of the city, announced a new sugar cake with the promised similarity of the prevost is “the same as divine as it is today.”
Governor Illinois JB Pritzker released a statement that said the news was “historic.”
“Pope Leo XIVI delivered the new chapter that I joined the people in our state welcomed when we needed compassion, unity, and peace,” he said.
Mayor of Chicago Brandon Johnson used the news to send more informal messages to the new Pope: “All of the drugs, including the Pope, come from Chicago!” He posted on X. “Congratulations to the first American Pope Leo XIV! We hope to welcome you immediately at home.”
While Leo spent two decades in North Peru, where he became a bishop and a naturalized citizen, his roots were initially on the southwest side, an area known for the inheritance of steel and car plants, white sox fans and Blackhawks, bungalow brick and environmental churches and elementary schools.
Born in Chicago in 1955, Leo attended St. Mary’s of the Assumption, an elementary school that is now remote on the edge of the city, and he was raised in Dolton, the southwest suburb which is located right across the road from the school. He then won the Master of Divinity title in 1982 from the Catholic Theological Union at Hyde Park, which is located along the edge of the lake, and ordained in the same year. He began his service with Augustinian Chicago Province and was later appointed as General of the Prior of Augustinian order throughout the world, according to the Catholic Theology Union.
Rev. William Lego, who is also a member of the Augustian Order, attended elementary school, secondary school and seminary with Leo before the two men became young priests. He said on Thursday that he was still accustomed to calling “Pastor Bob” with his new name.
“He is always very intelligent, never jumping to conclusions, he holds people with respect, and he listens. I am sure that is what he will bring to the papada,” Lego said.
As for their Chicago root together, Lego added, “There will always be a tone of pride.”
A bishop danced with a US flag, after the announcement that the US Cardinal Robert Prevost had been chosen by the Konklave as the new Pope, under the name of Pope Leo XIV, in Vatican, May 8, 2025.
Eloisa Lopez/Reuters
Like Obama, many local residents have a personal relationship with Leo. Because their last names both ended with “P” at that time, Nadia Weer sat next to Leo for eight years in class. He said even at that time he was very obedient and diligently learning his nickname was “Father Robert.”
“We always assume that he will become a priest,” he said. “He was really blue. He was good. I was really proud of him. You like people to be successful when they deserve it. And Robert really deserves it.”
Leo’s intensity with his faith, even when he was a child, Stone was impressed, who said he once told people that he wanted to finally lead the church as a pope.
“Midwest people are even very paid off. I think he has grown in the environment that he will become a central pope. He will unite people. He will become one of the big pope,” he said.
Leo’s brother, John Prevost, told ABC News on Thursday that Leo had never “questioned” his calling in life and that, as a child, he often “played priest” using the ironing board as his altar.
“I guess he never thought about anything else,” said John Prevost.
Many remember the Leo family is also dedicated to their faith. His father, a school principal in Chicago’s South Side, volunteered at the Chicago Archdiocese in the 1990s. Janet Sisler, Associate of the School Inspector for the Archdiocese at the time, remembered that “Pastor Bob” would stop by when he returned to his hometown.
Obviously, there is “family history dedicated to their faith and dedicated to service,” he said. “He grew up in that life and continued to inspire his life decisions with the service of faith and promotion of justice.”
Chicago roots in the labor movement may also be influence.
“He comes from the family where his mother and father work. He understands how people can have a commitment to work and for their families and beliefs,” he said. “This is a new whale who understands the importance of the community and the importance of the church interacts in a positive way to serve the world.”