From Chicago’s South Side to the Vatican: the early life of Pope Leo XIV

Cardinal Robert Prevost, born in Chicago in 1955, was elected this Thursday as the successor to Pope Francis as the head of the Catholic Church.

After the death of the Argentine pontiff last month the traditional Conclave was held at the Vatican, which took two days to elect the American as the new Pope.

The new man has chosen the name Leo XIV as he assumes his responsibilities as the new Pope. His roots are in Chicago but he also emigrated to Peru as part of his trajectory within the religious world.

Since he was a child, Robert Francis Prevost was raised in the Catholic faith by his parents. He was born on September 14, 1955 in the Dolton suburb of Chicago. His mother, Mildred Martinez, was of Spanish descent and his father, Louis Marius Prevost, had both French and Italian parents.

Pope Leo XIV’s roots in Chicago

The young Prevost attended high school at St. Augustine Seminary High School and served as an altar boy at St. Mary of the Assumption Church. That church was based in the famed South Side of Chicago, the largest of the city’s three main sections.

His multicultural upbringing helped instil in the young Prevost an incredible proficiency with languages, speaking a number of European languages fluently. He speaks English, Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese, while he can also read German and Latin.

Prevost graduated from Villanova University in 1977 with a degree in mathematics. He decided to become a priest and joined the Order of St. Augustine in September of that year, taking his solemn vows in 1981.

After a spell doing missionary work in Peru he returned to the US and was elected to oversee the Augustinian Province of Chicago.

Having grown up in Chicago and lived most of his life in the city, there is one question on the mind of many: is the new Pope a Cubs or White Sox fan? As part of the coverage of the papal election on Thursday, ABC News reported that Pope Leo XIV is a Chicago White Sox fan, surely a first for the leader of the Catholic Church.

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