As newly elected Pope Leo XIV — a native son of Chicago — made his first appearance on the loggia at St. Peter’s Basilica, Cardinal Blase Cupich looked on from an adjacent balcony, keenly aware of the monumental moment.
The archbishop of Chicago gazed down at the piazza and crowd that spilled to the Tiber River, jam-packed with more than 250,000 faithful awaiting the first words of the new pontiff.
“To be in that position is something that I’ll never be able to replicate in the future,” Cupich said during a phone interview with the Tribune from Vatican City. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience to be on the same platform where the new pope is going to be announced with hundreds of thousands of people chanting his name.”
Following the papal conclave’s historic selection, Cupich declared that Chicago should be “proud to have produced” the new pope, a South Sider who became the first American pontiff in the 2,000-year history of the Catholic Church.
“Let’s be proud that Chicago produced a person of this quality that could be pope,” he said. “We should be very proud of that.”
The archbishop of Chicago played an historic role Thursday as a member of the conclave that selected Dolton’s own Robert Francis Prevost, longtime missionary and member of the Augustinian order, to lead the Church.
Local family members and friends know the new pontiff as a lifelong devout Catholic and former altar boy who makes frequent trips back home to the Chicago area, cheering for the White Sox and enjoying a slice of Aurelio’s pizza when back in town.
Cupich described the pope as an organized and meticulous worker who is humble and strives to take in a variety of different perspectives.
“He’s very smart — he picks up things quickly. But he also has the ability to listen to other people and make sure that people with different opinions than his are listened to,” Cupich said. “There’s no ego that gets in the way of his own deliberation and decision-making. He just wants to always try to do the right thing and discern the right path forward. There is a great authenticity to him. And I think that will serve him well as Pope Leo XIV.”
Indeed, Catholics across the Chicago area on Thursday celebrated the news that one of their own was now the pope.
“When I heard the news of the new Holy Father at that moment, at least here in Chicago, the sun came out,” said the Rev. Greg Sakowicz, rector of Holy Name Cathedral.
Some would say the sunny weather was just a coincidence, Sakowicz acknowledged.
But “a coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous,” he added.
The pope’s older brother, John Prevost of south suburban New Lenox, recalled that when Prevost was in first grade a neighbor predicted he would be the first American pope.
While Thursday’s news of Prevost’s election as pope came as a surprise to John Prevost, it also felt somehow inevitable — he’d had a gut feeling all along.
While John Prevost knows the role will have its challenges, he believes his brother is ready to lead.
“It’s awesome, it’s a great responsibility, but he will be scrutinized left and right,” John Prevost said. “I think it will be a lot. But he has the patience of a saint.”
Local roots, Augustinian legacy
In the new pope’s first public address, he offered the world blessings and a message of combating fear with faith.
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“God cares for us, God loves all of us, and evil will not prevail,” he declared. “We are all in God’s hands. Therefore, without fear, united hand in hand with God and among ourselves, let us move forward.”
Born on Sept. 14, 1955, at Mercy Hospital in Chicago, Prevost was raised in suburban Dolton with his parents and two brothers, attending St. Mary of the Assumption parish on the Far South Side, where he went to school, sang in the choir and served as an altar boy.
Marianne Angarola, 69, was in the same class as Prevost and remembered him as a talented singer who “cared about people” and “looked for the good in things.”
“He was the pride and joy of every priest and nun in that school,” Angarola said. “Everybody knew he was special.”
Cupich believes Prevost’s deep family roots in the Chicago area will influence his leadership style as pope.
“He is a hard worker,” Cupich added. “He is a Midwesterner who is not afraid of hard work, who is practical and not afraid of getting things done and bringing people together. That is part of our culture.”
Prevost’s late father, Louis, was an educator who led Glenwood School District 167 and served as principal of now-defunct Mount Carmel Elementary School in Chicago Heights. His mother, Mildred, was a librarian who worked at Holy Name Cathedral, Von Steuben High School on the North Side and Mendel Catholic Prep.
Jim Priestley attended St. Augustine Seminary High School in Michigan and Villanova University with Prevost. The two saw each other last summer, Priestley recalled, after Prevost came to the area to speak with parishioners at St. Jude Catholic Church in New Lenox. During his visit home, Prevost met with some old friends at Aurelio’s pizza in Homewood.
Priestley said Prevost is “the type of guy who likes a challenge.”
Loyola University Chicago professor Michael Murphy recalled having dinner with Prevost and several other faculty colleagues last summer at the Ivy Restaurant in west suburban Wheaton.
The waiter asked Murphy if Prevost was famous.
“And I’m like ‘No, not really. He’s a great cardinal from the area and he’s had a really great career,’” Murphy said, laughing in retrospect.
There is much significance to the name the new pope selected, said Murphy, director of the Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage at Loyola.
Leo invokes two prominent namesakes: Pope Leo the Great was renowned for being a peacemaker, famously meeting with Attila the Hun and persuading him not to ransack Rome.
“And Attila made a u-turn and left,” he said.
Pope Leo XIII was known as a social justice advocate, championing workers and the right to a living wage, Murphy said.
“I think he’s going to be a great pope,” Murphy said. “ I think he’ll be a true Catholic servant and successor of St. Peter.”
Prevost was head of the Augustinian religious order from 2001 to 2013. In 2014, he was named apostolic administrator and then bishop of Chiclayo, in northern Peru.
About two years ago, his predecessor Pope Francis named Prevost to take over the Vatican office that vets worldwide bishop nominations from a retiring Canadian who had recently been accused of sexual misconduct; that powerful Holy See office also investigates allegations of abuse or negligence against bishops.
As pope, Prevost will have to continue grapple with the Catholic Church’s ongoing sexual abuse crisis. He has been criticized for his handling of two local sex abuse cases involving Augustinian priests in the Chicago. Survivors organizations have accused him of allowing the Rev. James Ray, a priest accused of abusing minors and whose ministry had been restricted since 1991, to live at the Augustinian’s St. John Stone Friary in Hyde Park in 2000 despite its proximity to a Catholic elementary school. The Vatican previously has denied Prevost approved the accommodation.
Prevost also has been criticized for the order’s handling of allegations against the Rev. Richard McGrath, former president of Providence Catholic High School in New Lenox. McGrath served for 32 years as principal and then president of the school before retiring amid allegations that he had abused a student and had pornography on his phone. The order settled one accuser’s lawsuit for $2 million in 2023. McGrath was never criminally charged.
The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests filed a complaint against Prevost with the Vatican in March.
“It certainly does not give us a lot of hope right now. It hurts,” said James Egan, a SNAP spokesperson.
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Despite these worries, Egan said he hopes SNAP can collaborate with Prevost to end abuse.
“We can get to a post-abuse church, and we really hope we can work with Robert Prevost on that,” Egan said.
Unity in a polarized world
Shortly after white smoke poured from the Sistine Chapel on Thursday, signaling Prevost’s election, Cupich said he spoke privately with the new pontiff.
“He was serene,” Cupich recalled. “He had accepted it.”
The cardinal said he has thanked Prevost several times for accepting the role of pontiff.
“Because it is a heavy responsibility,” Cupich said. “It’s a whole life change for him. Imagine, his life is now altogether different. You don’t go out at night for a pizza or a walk. You’ve now got the whole world watching everything that you do. It’s quite a change and I was so glad he accepted.”
The archbishop of Chicago marveled at the swiftness of the papal conclave’s decision to elect Prevost, noting that 133 men from 70 countries came to an agreement in just over 24 hours.
“There is a unity there that so often we miss in the world,” he said.
Humanity tends to be mired in conflict and division, he added.
“So I think it is a matter of our prayer with the gift of the Holy Spirit to come to the right decision,” he said. “That was what was remarkable to me: That it came so naturally and quickly.”
Dugan McGinley, Rutgers University teaching professor of theology, believes the new pope’s biggest challenge will be “having to thread the needle to keep a large institution together in a very fractious world.”
“We’re in a very polarized era,” he said. “No one in Catholicism wants schisms. How does he keep all sides listened to and affirmed in some way? Ultimately that might be an impossible task. But I think from what I’m hearing of him, he’ll do his best.”
There have been recent divisions in numerous faiths over social issues like national politics and LGBTQ inclusion, McGinley said, noting that more conservative Catholics and “self-styled traditionalists are going to be watching him closely.”
“He’s signaling that he’s very much a pope in the trajectory of Pope Francis,” McGinley added. “He wants to be inclusive and have it be a pastoral loving and welcoming church.”
Cupich also predicts Pope Leo XIV will carry on much of the legacy of the late Pope Francis, a charismatic pastoral figure who was beloved by many Catholics and non-Catholics alike.
“Pay attention to what he says now as he defends workers rights, immigrants, people who are living in the margins of society,” Cupich said. “That is the program of Pope Francis that he is going to fully embrace… People should stay tuned.”
While the Chicago area should celebrate that one of their own will be leading the Catholic Church, Cupich said Pope Leo XIV will work to build bridges and help unify humanity across the globe.
“He’s the world’s pope,” he said.