I never thought I would see the day when an American was elected Pope. It was just one of those things which everyone believed: there will never be an American Pope. We believed that Catholics would get an Asian Pope or an African Pope before North America was represented. But something shifted. Not only is the new Pope an American, he’s a Chicagoan. Dude grew up eating deep-dish pizzas and rooting for the White Sox. Chicago Pope is just some guy called Bob. Seriously! Robert Francis Prevost is known as “Bob” to friends, especially his Villanova classmates. Now his official papal name is Pope Leo XIV. Oh, and Bob is a VIRGO!! An American Virgo named Bob. Those Italians have no idea what they’re getting themselves into.
Robert Francis Prevost was elected the 267th pope of the Roman Catholic Church on Thursday and took the name Pope Leo XIV, becoming the first pope from the United States and defying the conventional wisdom before the conclave that any American would be a long shot to become pontiff.
A puff of white smoke from a chimney above the Sistine Chapel signaled that the cardinals sequestered inside for two days had elected a new leader the world’s 1.4 billion Roman Catholics. As pope, Leo XIV will confront difficult decisions about the church’s direction, chiefly whether to continue the agenda of his predecessor, Pope Francis, who championed greater inclusion and openness to change until his death last month, or forge a different path.
The cardinals reached their decision after being in conclave for a little more than 24 hours, and after several rounds of voting. The group of 133 cardinals, the most ever to gather in a conclave, included many who were appointed by Francis and some who did not know one another. That had made reaching a quick consensus a serious challenge, given the broad group of contenders and the splits among them about the future of the church.
Despite his American roots, Cardinal Prevost, a 69-year-old, Chicago-born polyglot, is viewed as a churchman who transcends borders. He served for two decades in Peru, where he became a bishop and a naturalized citizen, then rose to lead his international religious order. Until the death of Francis, he held one of the most influential Vatican posts, running the office that selects and manages bishops globally.
A member of the Order of St. Augustine, he resembles Francis in his commitment to the poor and migrants and to meeting people where they are. He told the Vatican’s official news website last year that “the bishop is not supposed to be a little prince sitting in his kingdom.”
He has spent much of his life outside the United States. Ordained in 1982 at age 27, he received a doctorate in canon law at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome. In Peru, he was a missionary, parish priest, teacher and bishop. As the Augustinians’ leader, he visited orders around the world, and speaks Spanish and Italian.
“…He held one of the most influential Vatican posts, running the office that selects and manages bishops globally.” Pope Francis appointed an unusually high number of new bishops as well – Francis was quietly cleaning house and getting some fresh blood into those positions, and Bob was the one who kept his eye on all of those new bishops. When you look at it that way, it’s not really a surprise that Bob became the consensus choice of the conclave.
So, what do we know about Pope Bob’s beliefs? Regarding his stances on LGBTQ issues, much is being made of Bob’s 2012 statements about Western media promoting “sympathy for beliefs and practices that are at odds with the gospel,” including beliefs and practices like the “homosexual lifestyle” and “alternative families comprised of same-sex partners and their adopted children.” In Peru, he also came out against gender studies. Re: women’s issues, he opposes ordaining women, but he’s spoken about the need to place women in more leadership positions within the church. It’s very likely that Bob was elected mostly to continue Pope Francis’s advocacy work for immigrants and refugees, because Bob seems to be particularly aligned with Francis on that subject.
Another interesting similarity between Bob and Pope Francis: they both hated JD Vance. Francis preferred to die rather than spend one more moment in the same city as JD Vance. Bob even tweeted “JD Vance is wrong” this year. Anyway, enjoy all of the Chicago Pope tweets!
JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn't ask us to rank our love for others https://t.co/hDKPKuMXmu via @NCRonline
— Robert Prevost (@drprevost) February 3, 2025
New Pope Leo XIV from Chicago makes his Vatican entrance to the Chicago Bulls 98 lineup introduction video pic.twitter.com/puLzbo5yVl
— THE™ Jessi Davin (@jessithebuckeye) May 8, 2025
New Pope serving the body of Christ at mass pic.twitter.com/retLuaWp0o
— Asscela Express 🚅 (@biz_socks) May 8, 2025
Tired: American Pope
Tired: Chicago Pope
Wired: Pope Who Is Known Informally as “Bob” pic.twitter.com/mcKRrxxDL9
— Ella Brockway (@ellabrockway) May 8, 2025
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red. Cover courtesy of Time Mag.
-
- White smoke. New Pope elected. In the photo: New Pontiff Robert Francis Prevost is Pope Leo XIV. Vatican City, Italy. 08 May 2025,Image: 996668647, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Maria Laura Antonelli/AGF Foto/Avalon
-
- Newly elected Pope Leo XIV appears on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, Vatican, on 07 May 2025.,Image: 996673052, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Stefano Costantino TTL/Avalon
-
- Newly elected Pope Leo XIV, Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost from the USA 8 May 2025,Image: 996676609, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Maria Laura Antonelli/AGF Foto/Avalon
-
- Newly elected Pope Leo XIV, Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost from the USA 8 May 2025,Image: 996676770, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Maria Laura Antonelli/AGF Foto/Avalon
-
- White smoke. New Pope elected. In the photo: New Pontiff Robert Francis Prevost is Pope Leo XIV. Vatican City, Italy. 08 May 2025,Image: 996676961, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Francesco Fotia/AGF Foto/Avalon
On top of all that he has African roots—as his grandparents are Louisiana Creole from the 7th ward.
I hope he continues to champions for the most vulnerable.
Yes! And he has acknowledged his Haitian roots. You know that’s going to piss off MAGA even more than they already are. May God continue to keep Pope Bob in good health for many years to come.
MAGA is furious that he’s been critical of 🍊 and 🛋. And that he’s long been an advocate for the poor and immigrants. I wouldn’t expect much to change within the Church.
The memes and tweets about the Chicago pope have been hilarious.
The first Black/Creole/Mixed Pope.
Surprised by this nomination. So unexpected for an American. Can’t wait to read the goss on how he was chosen. He looked overwhelmed when he saw the crowds. Relatively young for a pope too so he should outlive Trump.
The Church is back in the affairs of the American state. 😏
Good luck Pope Bob and I hope you show the Good American to counter the Bad American.
All those Catholics on the supreme court now need to be very careful on their rulings lest he excommunicates them.
All the Catholics on the Supreme Court have been on the wrong side of the death penalty from day one. They love the anti choice abortion stuff, but the corollary with the church’s position on abortion extends to being against the death penalty and none of them take that position.
This is why politics and religion should not be so linked because the so called Catholics don’t even apply their churches position evenly.
Big shoutout to HNOC for pulling out those documents yesterday!
Yes! That was so quick!
I hope HNOC contacts the Vatican to update this entry – because that’s where all the press I’ve come across has been reprinting it.
“ The new Bishop of Rome was born on September 14, 1955, in Chicago, Illinois, to Louis Marius Prevost, of French and Italian descent, and Mildred Martínez, of Spanish descent. He has two brothers, Louis Martín and John Joseph.”
https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2025-05/biography-of-robert-francis-prevost-pope-leo-xiv.html
I keep looking for the Spanish descendancy but can’t find it. Which part of Spain for example? The Spanish would love to claim a Pope as well.
Would love to see the DNA results on Pope Bob. Should be a rainbow 🌈
His mother is the link to being creole or Haitian and her last name was Martinez. I suspect that’s where they included Spanish.
The Creole/Haitian link is closer so I wonder why the official Vatican news didn’t release that? The Spanish ancestor would be several generations further and I’m sure an obscure Spanish town would want to claim him.
But it’s lovely to see a Pope whose personal story reflects the vagaries of history and colonialism.
Names like “Martinez” and “Gonzalez” aren’t uncommon among New Orleans/southern La. creoles. The Spanish colonial influence would be as noticeable as the French if the language link had persisted.
The first words out of Pope Leo’s mouth should’ve been that he’s on a mission from God and I’m extremely disappointed that this moment was lost.
That’s funny 😁.
Didn’t see anything wrong when he spoke of peace. Building bridges is a good theme.
That line is a classic, 🙂
@K8erade, thanks for the first laugh-out-loud of my day!
Pope Leo, the Blues Brothers and Chicago. “Mission from God” perfection!
@K8erade – Excellent. 😆 😆 😆
Let us hope for better. The new Pope does not believe that women are mens equals. He is homophobic. He voted in Republican primaries and elections. Same old same old as far as this former Catholic can see. Let’s see what he does about priest sexual abuse!!!
TELL IT!
Yeah exactly. I mean, good on him for caring about immigrants but if that empathy doesn’t extend to all people then it doesn’t mean much to me.
Yup, nice to have the first American but he’s still pretty misogynistic. Centrist rather than left wing like Francis.
So I’ll support his stance on immigration but when it comes to women’s rights, the Church fails every single time.
I’m not sure what all his views are but so far I like him.
I wish he had gone with “Pope Bob”.
Leo – with a nod to history – isn’t bad at all.
Villanova is celebrating
While I appeciate that he’s been tweeting against Trump since 2015, I’m just so tired of old white men sh*tting on women’s rights, lgbtq rights and protecting predators.
Bob’s brother giving an interview from his couch about whether the pope is a cubs fan or a white sox fan feels like the most Chicagoan topic ever.
Is being a Sox fan a good thing? Need some more context.
His brother’s charming. Love the story of the six year old Bob being given some Gypsy prediction he was going to be the first American pope. Wonder who she was.
The Cubs have the larger of the two followings and had the lovable losers reputation after going over a century between World Series championships. The Sox are just kind of there.
Also one of other great sports related mentions from yesterday was that Chicago produced a pope before the Bears produced a quarterback that threw for 4,000 yards in a season.
Usually White Sox fans are from the south side and the Cubs fans are from the north side but it’s not a hard rule. I think the Prevosts lived in the southern suburb of Dolton for some time so that tracks. There’s more Cub fans, going to Wrigley Field is a good time even when they lose.
I wonder if the new pope has drunk any Malort? It’s a tradition, even if it tastes like a tire fire.
Thanks for that. Is the south side the working class / immigrant side of Chicago? I keep reading south side and not sure what it’s supposed to mean.
The south side is definitely lower average income, save for some select areas. It has far more POC per capita. Michelle Obama grew up there and they kept their nice house in Hyde Park where the University of Chicago is. Immigrants would tend to be on the south side and the west side. Working class can found in the entire city.
Obama is also a White Sox fan, but it’s a terrible team that not even divine intervention would help.
He’s a Republican
Yep.
Pope Bob?!?
After Top Gun Maverick and Thunderbolts, Lewis Pullman is going to win an Oscar in a few years playing Pope Bob in a biopic. IYKYK. 😉
Same old same old but not as bad as it could have been. And that fact that he clearly despises Vance and Trump does bring me joy.
It would seem that the only thing going for him is he’s not anti-immigrant.
Add climate change, vaccines for all, social distancing during the pandemic. The previous Leo was for social justice, rights of workers, so that’s an indication of where his heart is.
I can’t get past the church’s positions on women, we are half of the planet. I was reading a recent article he linked and when I got to “redemptive suffering is a grace” I had to nope right out.
“Pope Bob”… love it! 😄
He has a history of covering up sexual abuse though…..
The surprise of an American Pope from Chicago was funny to watch. The fact that he seems to not care for Vance or Trump is great. The fact that it had magas mad…love it. But other than that? We’ll see. It could have been worse. But at the end of the day, the catholic church is never going to be as progressive as I would like. But I’m not even Catholic or religious so that’s just my outsider’s take.
This ^^^. The Catholic Church has been around for 2,000 years, with the same dogma. It’s never going to be as progressive as we like, but even baby steps on certain issues is a big deal.
Also, I thought that Republican thing was just that he voted in the primary because IL doesn’t have party registrations? Presumably he voted R to vote against Trump? I always vote Dem and I voted in the Rep primary in 2016 to cast a vote against Trump.
this is accurate. Whichever ballot he requested is merely the primary he wished to vote. No one declares a party in Illinois. There are some AI images going around to show he is a republican, but they are false – Illinois has no party declaration as part of voter registration.
It was really surprising to be forced to declare “Independent” when I moved out of Illinois in order to have my choice of primary ballots as all did in Illinois. In my new state, if I declare a party, I can only vote in the primary of my declared party.
Same. I am in Texas and we have an open primary. I’m a Democrat but I voted in the 2016 Republican primary to vote against Trump, and I’m still getting emails and texts from GOP as a result.
2016 is the last time they have him voting in the Republican primary so he probably was repulsed by orange man, as most sane humans would be.
I’m sure Trump was impressed by the pomp at the funeral, so I wonder how he’ll approach the new pope – kiss the ring?
Does the Vatican have tariffs against it?
Yes, I honestly thought we’d get a staunchly conservative Pope after Francis. This guy isn’t at all as progressive, but I thought we were really going to see the pendulum swing all the way on the other side.
this was my expectation and its why I’m pleasantly surprised at this. The Pope isn’t going to be left wing. But this one seems more progressive than I was expecting on certain issues (not all) and I thought the pendulum was going to swing to the total opposite of Francis.
It’s just too early to know what’s up with Pope Bob. But I had an enjoyable afternoon yesterday as all the big MAGAs were freaking out on social media. They are convinced that we have a “woke” pope so I will just lean into that idea until I have further information. But this seems like a deliberate troll by the College of Cardinals after Trump started trolling them with that ridiculous image of him as pope. It’s like they were saying, oh, so you want to be pope! Well, you can’t, but here’s an American you might like. 😆
All of this.
I’m not thrilled with Leo’s views on LGBTQ+ people, but the enemy of my enemy is my friend, and MAGA Catholics are so mad.
You guys, I cannot get enough of the Chicago Pope jokes right now. They are giving me life. Keep them coming. This recovering Catholic is having a great time.
Does it feel weird you now live in a world where you know the sitting pope has eaten a hot dog?
This is like when they made a big deal of JP2 as a soccer player. And cyclist – I think it was Colnago who gave him a flashy gold bike – Popemobile eat your heart out!
Let’s see what freebies this new pope will get 😂
Good for Peru, because they just got their first Peruvian pope too. Bob ain’t just American and he went out of his way to speak spanish and talk of his Peruvian church fellows. Clearly he is deeply attached to the country he chose.
I am enjoying the MAGAts as they scream in horror and anger that the conclave chose GASP “a globalist” to lead a global institution.
I was stunned when this happened yesterday! I knew they were in conclave but I expected it to take longer and I had no clue there was any chance an American could be chosen. Most Americans (including American Catholics) really did just assume that there would never be an American Pope, not in their lifetimes anyway.
Anyway, yeah, he’s not liberal about everything but I wouldn’t expect him to be. It’s the Catholic Church, after all. I do appreciate him trolling JD Vance on Twitter and his stance on migrants, as well as his affiliation with Peru.
It looks like that Charlie aka King Charles III forgot to tell the Cardinals in the Conclave not to overshadow his events on VE day.
Regarding Pope Leo XIV it could have been worse.
Would be funny if Pope Bob told Chuck “reconcile with your son.”
Not to forget that Charlie is also the head of the Anglican church. Charlie should be a good role model by following their teachings.
It also could have been better. We could have gotten Luis Antonio Tagle.
I was rooting for Pope Chito, too.
Kind of hilarious to imagine Trump hearing that the new pope is American before being told straight away that he hates him just as much as the previous one. Also he apparently voted in at least three of the last Republican primaries (according to the Guardian) so you just know he voted for whoever was running against Trump lol.
I was very surprised. But as I always tell myself and believe in, things happen for a reason.