Robert Prevost Is a Chicago Native, and Was Raised in the Catholic Church

Following the news that Robert Prevost had been elected as the first American pope in the history of the Catholic Church, many wanted to know more about the Chicago native, including where he grew up.

Although he has become one of the most powerful people in the world, Pope Leo XIV comes from rather humble American beginnings.

Here's what we know about Robert Prevost, now Leo XIV, and where he grew up:

According to reporting in The Chicago Sun-Times, Prevost grew up in the Chicago suburb of Dalton and attended church at St. Mary of the Assumption, which is on the farthest Southern edge of Chicago. The church is now closed in large part because there were fewer Catholics living in the neighborhood. Prevost was born at Mercy Hospital at 25th Street and Prairie Avenue on the South Side, like his siblings.

His father, Louis, was an educator, and his mother, Mildred, was a librarian. They lived in a 1,200-square-foot brick house on East 141st Place in Dolton, and Louis served as the super intendant for south suburban schools in District 169. He served as a lieutenant in the Navy during World War II in the Pacific theater, and went to the Central Y.M.C.A. College in 1943 while living in Hyde Park.

Prevost's mother, meanwhile, attended DePaul University, and her 1990 obituary suggests that she and her husband started the St. Mary’s library in the school basement.

Although he grew up in and around Chicago, most of Prevost's service inside of the church has taken place in Peru, which is why he is a dual U.S. and Peruvian citizen. He is also the second pope in a row, following Francis, to hail from the Americas.

The fact that Prevost was born and raised not just in America, but in Chicago specifically, has already led to some pretty delightful jokes about everything from his food preferences to what he might prioritize as pope.

"God bless everyone in the world, except Green Bay," one popular post featuring the pope's picture reads.

"Chicago pope to teach Italians how to slice pizza the proper way," another said, accompanied by an image of a pizza cut into squares.

There are even shirts going around emblazoned with the words "Da Pope," a reference to a popular "Da Bears" sketch from Saturday Night Live.

Although Leo XIV was probably elected because of his religious qualifications and his scholarship, there seem to be many in America who like to imagine him as an average Chicagoan.

There are some things we know to be true about him, though, including the fact that he is a Chicago White Sox fan. That's unfortunate, at least at the moment, because that team is not very good. He'll likely have less time to watch baseball moving forward than he did in the past, but his Chicago connections will be part of him for the rest of his life.