He's a 'Pope for All the Americas'

'Everything dope, including the Pope, comes from Chicago,' mayor says
Posted May 8, 2025 2:11 PM CDT
Meet the First American Pope
Newly elected Pope Leo XIV appears at the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Thursday, May 8, 2025.   (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

The papacy was held by Italians for centuries before Poland's Pope John Paul II was chosen in 1978, and many observers thought cardinals might elect an Italian to succeed Pope Francis, the first pontiff from Argentina. Instead, they chose a pope from Chicago. Cardinal Robert Prevost took the name Pope Leo XIV. "Peace be with you all," he told the cheering crowd in St. Peter's Square around 70 minutes after white smoke poured from the Sistine Chapel chimney, signaling that a new pope had been elected. More on the first American pope:

  • A 'surprise choice': Reuters calls the 69-year-old a "surprise choice," since he only became a cardinal in 2023. Francis gave him a powerful position in the Vatican, but there had "long been a taboo" against having a pope from the US "given the country's geopolitical power already wielded in the secular sphere," the AP notes. Leo, however, has also been a citizen of Peru, where he spent much of his career, since 2015.

  • Background: Leo, who was born in Chicago and holds a degree in mathematics from Villanova University in Pennsylvania, was ordained a priest in 1982 and first went to Peru in 1985. He served as a missionary and later as a bishop, then archbishop. He was twice elected head of the Order of St. Augustine, France 24 reports. The AP describes it as a centuries-old "community of 'mendicant' friars dedicated to poverty, service, and evangelization;" six prior popes were Augustinians.
  • The Francis angle: The AP reports that Francis in "many ways saw him as his heir apparent" and brought him to the Vatican in 2023 to oversee the office that vets the nomination of bishops. Leo is expected to continue Francis' commitment to social justice and marginalized communities.
  • 'Not a showboat': Father Mark Francis studied with Leo at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago from 1978 until 1982. Earlier this week, he told CBS News that his former classmate would have a " calm, steady, very direct kind of guidance" if he became pope. "My experience of Cardinal Prevost was that he's not a showboat," Francis said. "He's very calm, but extremely intelligent, and extremely compassionate."
  • 'A pope for all the Americas': The election of Leo "shows that the Latin American cardinals were united behind him and pushed his election as pope," Thomas Reese, author of Inside the Vatican, tells the Telegraph. "They see him as one of their own because he was a priest and a bishop in Latin America and spent many, many years there," Reese says. "He is not just an American, he is a pope for all of the Americas."
  • The mayor's reaction: "Everything dope, including the Pope, comes from Chicago!" Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said in a post on X . "Congratulations to the first American Pope Leo XIV! We hope to welcome you back home soon."

  • President Trump: "Congratulations to Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, who was just named Pope," Trump said in a post on Truth Social. "It is such an honor to realize that he is the first American Pope. What excitement, and what a Great Honor for our Country. I look forward to meeting Pope Leo XIV. It will be a very meaningful moment!"
  • Controversies: The New York Times notes that "like many other cardinals," he "has drawn criticism over his dealings with priests accused of sexual abuse." He has also been less accepting of LGBTQ+ people than his predecessor.
(More Pope Leo XIV stories.)

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