The new pope was formerly the prior general, or leader, of the Order of St Augustine, formed in the 13th century as a community of “mendicant” friars dedicated to poverty, service and evangelization. He was elected in two days, after four ballot voting sessions of the eligible members of the College of Cardinals

 

Cardinal Robert Prevost Is the First American Pope

Rome: Cardinal Robert Prevost, a missionary born in Chicago who spent his career ministering in Peru and leads the Vatican’s powerful office of bishops, was elected the first American pope in the 2,000-year history of the Catholic church.

Prevost, 69, took the name Leo XIV. He replaces Pope Francis, who died last month.

His first words as pope were, “Peace be with you.”

From the loggia of St Peter’s Basilica, the first American pope told the gathered throng that he is an Augustinian priest but a Christian above all, as well as a bishop, “So we can all walk together.”

He spoke in Italian and then switched to Spanish, recalling his many years spent as a missionary and then archbishop of Chiclayo, Peru.

“I’m really proud,” said Noelle Neis, a childhood friend who, with her four siblings, grew up in the same parish as the Prevosts, the old St Mary of the Assumption on Chicago’s border with Dolton.

She said her phone was blowing up Thursday with calls and texts.

“To think about we knew him when he was a kid,” Neis said. “He’s just like one of us. Before it was so out of reach for anybody.”

Prevost’s rise to become an influential figure at the Vatican began in Dolton as it grew, taking in thousands of people moving from apartments in Chicago to new homes in the south suburb during the post-World War II boom.

Catholics moving there typically landed at the St Mary of the Assumption on the far southern edge of Chicago, straddling the line with Dolton. That’s where the Prevost family — Louis, an educator; Mildred, a librarian; and their sons Louis, John and Robert — were known at bustling St Mary’s as dedicated and devout musicians, altar boys, lectors and volunteers.

Sadly, Neis said, St Mary’s closed as the neighborhoods around it changed and there were fewer Catholics.

“Although my siblings said, ‘We should build a shrine now.’ Maybe the church would be resurrected by the diocese. That would be something.”

Robert Francis “Bob” Prevost, like his older brothers, was born at Mercy Hospital at 25th Street and Prairie Avenue on the South Side.

His parents, then 35 and 43, had been living in a 1,200-square-foot brick house on East 141st Place in Dolton. They bought it new in 1949, paying a $42 monthly mortgage.

His father Louis Prevost was superintendent of the south suburban schools in District 169. News clippings from 1945 show he served as a Navy lieutenant in the Mediterranean in WWII. He had graduated from the old Central YMCA College in 1943 while living in Hyde Park.

The new pope’s mother, Mildred Martinez Prevost, studied library science at DePaul University. Her death notice, in 1990, said she and her husband with starting the St Mary’s library in the basement of the old school building and mentions jobs she had in the libraries at Holy Name Cathedral, Von Steuben High School on the North Side and at Mendel from 1969 to 1975.

The Sun-Times reported earlier this month that St Mary’s parishioners remember her as the sweet “Millie,” one of those ladies who keep a Catholic parish running, a constant presence at the school. She was in the Altar and Rosary Society, at one point its president. With a memorable voice, she sang in the church’s choirs.

Like St Mary’s, the Catholic institutions that helped shape the future pope are long gone, closed over the decades as the Catholic population around where he grew up and elsewhere plummeted. Among those bygone institutions:

• Mendel College Prep High School, where Prevost and his mother worked.
• St Augustine Seminary High School in Michigan.
• Tolentine College in Olympia Fields, the suburb where he briefly lived.
• Mount Carmel Elementary School in Chicago Heights, where his father was principal.

An American pope was considered a long shot. In fact, Cardinal Blase Cupich, archbishop of Chicago, said last month that the next pope would not be from the United States.

The new pope was formerly the prior general, or leader, of the Order of St Augustine, formed in the 13th century as a community of “mendicant” friars dedicated to poverty, service and evangelization.

The order’s requirements and ethos are traced to the fifth century St Augustine of Hippo, one of the theological and devotional giants of early Christianity.

The order works in about 50 countries, promoting a contemplative spirituality, communal living and service to others.

Prevost was elected in two days, after four ballot voting sessions of the eligible members of the College of Cardinals. - AP