The new pope grew up on the Southside. And he has a favorite pizza place.
Overnight, Chicago was thrust into the spotlight when one of its own was named by the Vatican as the first pope from America, following the conclave. The conclave’s choice for the 267th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church meant that 133 cardinals from around the world voted him in to replace Pope Francis, who died last month at 88.
This affinity to scream loud and proud that Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, 69, was “one of them” reverberated throughout Chicago, resulting in lots of online memes, from Chicago Bears fans jabbing their longtime NFL rival the Green Bay Packers with “We got the pope!” to a declaration that putting ketchup on a hot dog is now a sin, plus a photo of Chicago-style deep-dish pizza paired with a caption implying this cheesy goodness would now be served as the “Body of Christ.” There was even a doctored-up photo mashing together retired Bears coach Mike Ditka and Prevost, with a line that “Sundays at the Vatican are about to be lit.”
Newly named Pope Leo XIV is also a Chicago White Sox fan, which could be a bone of contention in a city with two sports teams in Major League Baseball. In fact, when Wrigley Field tried to claim him as a Chicago Cubs fan, lighting up the field’s marquee with the message “Hey Chicago. He’s a Cubs fan!” and the team’s chaplain Rev. Burke Masters invited him to celebrate Mass at Wrigley Field, Prevost’s older brother John Prevost stepped in to fact check. “He was never, ever a Cubs fan. So I don’t know where that came from. He was always a Sox fan.”
One reason could be Prevost’s origins: he grew up on the South Side, closer to Rate Field than Wrigley Field, which is on Chicago’s North Side. As a social rule, Chicagoans tend to support the MLB team closest to where they live.
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Born at Mercy Hospital on Chicago’s South Side in 1955, to Louis Marius Prevost and Mildred Martinez, Prevost was raised in Dolton, which is a Chicago suburb of 21,000 people just 20 miles south of The Loop and not far from Northwestern Indiana. That state is only a 25-minute drive to the East. His father was an educator, and his mother a librarian; both are deceased. His father was also a principal at Mount Carmel Elementary School in Chicago Heights. DePaul University on Chicago’s North Side is his mother’s alma mater.
The common thread in all the news articles published about Prevost was that he felt destined to be a priest. This was long before he was ordained in 1982 through the Order of St. Augustine. Prevost’s family belonged to and was active in the St. Mary of the Assumption Parish in Riverdale, a church founded in 1886 and only a few miles from where they lived in Dolton.
While the parish is now closed, the building still stands at 310 E. 137th St. CBS Chicago put together a short video about what it’s like today in this village, with a reporter standing outside Prevost’s childhood home (212 E. 141st Place), a nondescript brick property with a door that’s painted red today. This is a classic Chicago house style. But not all can claim to have once housed the future pope. The same is true for the family’s church: the community hopes that maybe it can open back up again after a building renovation, bolstered by its new street cred. One woman who was interviewed about his upbringing called him “Robbie.” As for the owner of Prevost’s childhood home, he told WGN that he already had planned to rehab and renovate the property for future tenants when he bought it last year, but he’s now thinking he can promote it into something more.
In another article, a former classmate at St. Mary’s not only showered him with praise but also claims to have predicted his papal fate. “He was the pride and joy of every priest and nun in that school,” she said. “Everybody knew he was special.” Prevost attended St. Augustine Seminary High School, formerly in Holland, Michigan, a town that attracts tourists every spring for its tulip fields.
As for Prevost, he’s a renaissance man who reportedly speaks five languages (English, French, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish) and can also read Latin and German. After graduating from Villanova University with a mathematics degree—a fact that the Pennsylvania university, the country’s only Augustine Catholic university, now proudly promotes on its website—he moved to Peru and became a naturalized citizen of that South American nation, holding positions that included president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America and Bishop of Chiclayo in Peru. He also earned a doctorate in canon law from the Pontifical College of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome, Italy.
But, through and through, and despite only living in Chicago early in his life, Prevost is a South Sider, with serious roots in that part of Chicago.
To walk in the footsteps of where Prevost has spent time in Chicago, a good place to start is the Catholic Theological Union, a seminary in the city’s Hyde Park neighborhood. Prevost was casually known as “Bob” while attending the seminary between 1978 and 1982. This South Side neighborhood is also home to the University of Chicago, the President Barack Obama House (who, by the way, congratulated Prevost), and the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Frederick C. Robie House. Prevost taught as a substitute teacher at St. Rita High School (7740 S Western Ave.), a college-preparatory school for young men in Chicago’s Chatham neighborhood, and also presided over communion ceremonies at St. Gabriel Parish (600 W 45th St) in Canaryville, another South Side neighborhood.
No person from Chicago would not be able to chime in with their favorite pizza joint, and this is also true of him. The Chicago Tribune reported yesterday that Aurelio’s Pizza is the Pope’s vice. Specifically, the Homewood location (18162 Harwood Ave), where he’s met with old friends.
Other celebs from Dolton include actress Jane Lynch and Nelsan Ellis, whose most well-known role is Lafayette Reynolds in True Blood. Now the community can add one more: Pope Leo XIV.
