Pope Bob from Chicago!

I feel sorry for the new Pope Leo 

Life as he has known it has turned upside down 

By Mary Ann Mueller 

VOL Special Correspondent 

www.virtueonline.org 

May 12, 2025 

Papam Americanum Habemus! 

There is now an American pope. But I haven't really connected with him as the Pope, Roman Pontiff, the Bishop of Rome or even as the American Pope. I find I'm connecting with him as a Midwesterner. 

I come from Wisconsin and he grew up a little bit south of Wisconsin in Chicago during roughly the same fifties through sixties time frame I did. So I understand his Midwestern ties, his Midwestern family roots, his Midwestern accent, his Midwestern Catholicism. 

It took just over 24 hours for the 133 voting Cardinals from 70 countries speaking 23 different languages to come to a consensus and elect the next Bishop of Rome – a Chicago-born Augustanian friar named Bob.

Thursday (May 8) after the fourth Conclave vote was taken, the votes counted and properly tallied, it was apparent that Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost received the required two-thirds-plus-one supermajority of votes cast to be elected Pope. 

He was then asked in Latin: "Acceptasne electionem de te canonice factam in Summum Pontificem?" (Do you accept your canonical election as Supreme Pontiff?”)

He replied: “Accepto.” ('I accept')

At that moment Bob Prevost, originally from Chicago, became The Pope – the weight of the Catholic Church descended upon his shoulders and his earthly life, as he knew it, was forever changed.

My Midwestern father, whose name was also Robert, used to say “Don't pray for a lighter load, pray for broader shoulders.”

My prayer for Pope Leo is that he has the shoulders of a Chicago Bears defensive end.

Upon giving his consent Robert Francis Prevost was asked in Latin: "Quo nomine vis vocari?" (“By what name do you wish to be called?”)

He replied: “Leonem XIV.” 

At this the newly-elected pope was about to be revealed to the world with the first hint of his election being the white smoke which billowed from the Sistine Chapel chimney against an azure sky. The gathering crowd below started cheering as bells rang out announcing his election across Rome.

As Pope Leo XIV steps on the world stage he instantly becomes the most identifiable religious figure on the planet. The Chair of Peter dates back nearly two thousand years to the Apostle Peter (1 BC to 64 AD). Robert Francis Prevost is the 267th man to claim the Keys of the Kingdom as priest, prophet and king-in-chief, with the spiritual authority to bind and loose. 

The Archbishop of Canterbury dates back to 597 AD and St. Augustine of Canterbury. Currently that see is Sede Vacante awaiting the appointment of a new Archbishop of Canterbury.

Ephraim Mirvis is Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of Great Britain and the Commonwealth.

Siddhartha Gautama – the Buddha – died in the fifth century BC, but at 89-years-old Tenzin Gyatso he is the current sitting Dalai Lama. He is the highest spiritual leader in Tibetan Buddhism.

Muḥammad died in 632 AD. There is no recognized central Islamic spiritual leader. 

No other religious voices are as loud and persistent as is the Pope of Rome.

As Cardinal Bob assumes the role as Pope Leo he is faced with ongoing religious and political shooting wars in Israel and Ukraine and escalating tensions between India and Palestine; a humanitarian crisis in Gaza; and on the home front an American president who is using draconian methods to deal with immigration, migration and worldwide economic trade issues.

Can Leo XIV use his Church’s voice to help bring Christ’s peace to the world and help mitigate world tensions?

In the hours and days following his first appearance on the loggia every word, gesture, tweet, sermon, speech, dress, mannerism and action is scrutinized and dissected. The criticisms have already begun.

What does it mean that Robert Francis Prevost took the name Leo XIV?

What does it mean that he appeared on the loggia wearing the papal red mozzetta and the wide decoratively embroidered papal stole but not the ruby slippers?

What does it mean that he gave his first Urbi et Orbi blessing in Italian and Spanish but not in English, his native tongue?

Already there are those who feel that the new Pope is not traditional enough – he did not wear the ruby slippers. Or that he is too traditional – earlier tweets show his questioning the German synodal way. Or that his very election is invalid because there were more than 120 cardinal-electors in the Conclave. 

In 1975 Pope Paul VI decreed there should only be 120 voting cardinals under the age of 80 assembled in a Conclave. There were 133 voting cardinals in this year's Conclave. 

Since the American Pope is a registered Republican will he cozy up to President Donald Trump or oppose his executive order method of governance. Will his knowledge of American politics impact and influence him or give him greater political insight on the world stage. 

One reporter has already referred to him as “Pope Prevost.” Many ultraconservative Catholics liked to refer to Pope Francis as “Bergoglio” before his death for they questioned the validity of the Francis papacy because of his liberal theology and questionable actions.

Currently, every nook and cranny of Pope Leo's life is being dug into – his background, his history, his education, his Augustinian ministry, his Chicago upbringing, his politics, his Vatican ties, his Peruvian missionary life, his brothers, his family roots. Every branch, twig and leaf of his family tree is being put under a microscope to discover his mixed race Creole Haitian ancestry through his New Orleanian grandparents and what that means. 

However, the United States isn't the only country claiming the new pope as theirs. Peru, too, lays claim to Pope Leo XIV as its “American pope” – South American pope. 

As an Augustinian friar, Fr. Bob spent many years as a foreign missionary in Peru. Eventually he was naturalized as a Peruvian citizen and for nine years he was the Bishop of Chiclayo before Pope Francis brought him to Rome as the Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and later created him a cardinal.

As a result, Pope Leo XIV is a citizen of three countries – the United States, Peru and the Vatican City-State. He holds three valid passports.

Right now, I just feel sorry for him. His world has just been turned upside down, left from right, inside out. Nothing will ever be the same again. How will his monastic life of prayer and service be impacted? 

Once Pope Leo donned the white papal cassock, he'll never again wear his familiar Order of St. Augustine habit, the black religious habit he has worn since 1978. 

He's a Chicago boy. As a young mid-century Baby Boomer his earliest days were shaped by the post war preVatican II Chicago Catholic culture in which Catholicism was at the heart and core of his being. As a grammar school student, he lived through the upheaval of Vatican II and he was also a schoolboy when President Kennedy was assassinated. Those events were defining moments in the lives of mid-century school children. 

I, too, as a schoolgirl, lived through those historic events.

As a Chicago boy Pope Leo will have to imagine never being able to go back to a Fourth of July family reunion, or go see a Sox game at Comiskey Park. Not being with his brothers, nieces, nephews and cousins around a Thanksgiving table or opening Christmas presents together. Never again experiencing the snow crunch beneath his boots while getting out of Midnight Mass with the cold Chicago wind stinging his cheeks. Not hearing the squeal and squeak of the Elevated overhead. Not taking a leisurely stroll along Lake Michigan's shoreline on the Lakefront Trail, or watch as the Chicago River turns green on St. Patrick's Day. He'll also miss being able to step out one evening with his brothers to a neighborhood pub for pizza and a brew and do whatever it is that Chicago brothers do when they are on the town together. 

From now on he'll be missing every family event – birthdays, anniversaries, births, deaths, weddings, Baptisms, First Communions, Confirmations, funerals ...

He may be Uncle Rob to his brothers' children – Bob to his friends – but now as Pope Leo he's simply out of comfortable reach to his own Prevost family members.

It's like when a young woman joins a strict cloistered order – Poor Clares … Trappistines … Carmelites – she misses out on familiar family events and usually gets to see her family members a few times a year through her monastery grill. 

So, now if family members want to see Uncle Rob they have to travel to Rome, unless he is making a papal visit somewhere in the United States and they can arrange to cross paths. 

His natural family is now overshadowed by his papal family. The desires of his Prevost family gets crushed by the greater demands of his worldwide Catholic family.  

Pope Leo and his brothers John and Louis are very closely knit. Louis is the oldest, John is the middle child, and Robert is the baby of the family. 

Before his elevation to the Throne of Peter the brothers kept in daily contact through email and texting, phone calls and playing the Internet game Wordle. Somehow that will all change. At this point all the three Prevost brothers’ lives have been irrevocably changed.

However, the elevation of little brother Robert to Pope Leo came out of left field. It was unexpected. Cardinal Prevost was the dark horse papal candidate. He wasn't on the radar. Conventional wisdom was that a cardinal born in the United States would not be made the Pope, or at least at this time and in this political climate.

Big brother Louis was sick in bed when he learned his kid brother Rob was becoming Pope. When he heard “Robertum” he knew it was either his brother or Cardinal Robert Sarah who was elected pope. But when he heard “Francescum” he knew it would be his brother because there is no other cardinal with the given name Robert Francis. He didn't need to hear “Sanctae Romane Ecclesiae Cardinalem Prevost” to cement the reality that the Cardinal Protodeacon Dominique Mamberti was introducing HIS brother to the world as Papae Leonem XIV.

Louis said it was a good thing he was in bed when he learned about Rob’s election or else he might have fallen over and passed out.

A couple of days ago an Associated Press reporter was interviewing the Pope’s other brother – John, who still resides in Chicagoland – when the Pope called. Right out of the gate John had to warn his brother Rob – now Pope Leo: “First you need to know you are on the air right now. We are being filmed and recorded..." 

Pope Leo: “Right now?”

Brother John: “Right this very minute.” 

The AP reporter said that the Pope did not want his conversation with his brother to be recorded. However, the reporter revealed that John congratulated the Pope and they talked about John making plans to travel to Rome. 

Unfortunately, Brother John couldn't simply answer the phone and just say: "Hey Rob … WOW! You're now the Pope! How's that going?"

Another time when Leo XIV called home and John answered the Pope asked: “Are the reporters gone?” 

Brother John: “No.”

Pope Leo: ‘‘OK, goodbye,” and he ended the call.

That's not fair to either brother. They need each other, especially at this time when Pope Leo is trying to maneuver through the early days of his pontificate where there is a massive lifestyle change and shift in ministry and responsibilities.

John has already headed to Rome to see his younger brother – the Pope – and to give him much needed moral support and some brotherly wisdom at this critical time in both their lives.

Both papal brothers – John and Louis – are being dogged by the unrelenting press corps.

“My little brother was just made Pope,” Louis told the media a few days ago. “What do I do? How do I act? Do I have to change the way I live? I better behave now."

Brother Louis, who lives in Florida, asks about the changing dynamics of the family unit and how it will impact the three brothers' close relationship.

“Is this position going to take him away where we don't see him any more? We can't talk to him like we used to anymore?” he asks. “We don't know. He's not Rob anymore – he's Leo XIV.” 

I really feel and pray for the three Prevost brothers – Rob (Leo) and John and Louis. There are many challenges facing all of them as their sibling relationships play out in newscasts and splashed in headlines. 

“Does that mean that as his (Pope Leo) brothers we’re like outsiders now because he's up on top of the Church?” Brother Louis wonders. “I sincerely hope not. He will always be Rob.”

Louis says when he gets to Rome Leo's exalted stature will melt. He has watched his brother's life develop in the Church. He remembers little Rob playing priest when the rest of the boys were playing cops and robbers or cowboys and Indians. Little Rob's vacation revealed itself early.

“We used to tease him about becoming Pope,” Louis recalls. “And now he is! I feel he’s had this calling since birth.” 

“I’ll treat him like my little brother – I'll give him a hug and say ‘Rob, you idiot! What have you done? …’” Brother Louis reveals when he next meets his brother – The Pope – “I’ll take his hat off and give him a noogie.” 

Mary Ann Mueller is a journalist living in Texas. She is a regular contributor to VirtueOnline.