Following the announcement of Pope Leo XIV, born Robert Prevost in Chicago, as the new head of the Catholic Church, local Catholic leaders expressed joy and support — and a bit of surprise about his Midwestern roots.
“I never thought I would see an American pope,” Bernard Hebda, the archbishop of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, said in a news conference Thursday. “How exciting is that?”
Hebda said he and Prevost had previously corresponded by mail but had never met in person. Most of the letters they shared, Hebda said, were archdiocese status updates during the time Prevost oversaw the Dicastery for Bishops, the church body that’s in charge of selecting new bishops and is involved in managing relations between dioceses and the Vatican.
Kevin Kenney, an auxiliary bishop of the archdiocese, graduated from the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago a few years after Prevost did, but the two men never met there, he said.
Kenney became a bishop in 2024, during Prevost’s time leading the Dicastery, so it’s likely that Prevost was the one who, upon the body’s recommendation, brought Kenney’s name to Pope Francis for papal approval.
“I am surprised that the Cardinals elected an American but overwhelmed with joy,” Kenney wrote in an email Thursday. “I am sure he had a big role in my becoming bishop so I look forward to meeting him someday.”
Bishop Robert Barron of the Diocese of Winona–Rochester, also from Chicago, traveled to Rome to witness the new pope’s first appearance. In a video posted to his Facebook page Thursday evening, he noted that he and Prevost had met a couple times at church synods over the years.
“He’s a quietly competent person,” Barron said in the video. “Not a flashy personality; a man of great intelligence, prayerfulness, obviously.”
Chris Mulcahey, a spokesperson for the Minnesota Catholic Conference, said he’s not aware of personal connections to Prevost among other bishops around the state.
The new pope’s Midwestern upbringing could help him connect to American Catholics in ways that are distinct from previous popes, Hebda said.
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“To have a pope, for example, who understands Catholic schools or the struggles parents go through to make sure our kids can get a good education,” Hebda said. “Just recognizing the experiences he’s had that would be very similar to Catholics in our archdiocese. Somebody who has the same experience of the American church and the way in which our church is so multicultural.”
It is unknown whether Prevost has ever visited Minnesota. To date, no sitting pope has ever visited the state. Before becoming Pope Pius XII, then-Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli briefly stopped in St. Paul on a national tour in 1936.
The new pope, who spent much of his career as a pastor and later bishop in Peru, is a White Sox fan, his brother told a local TV station in Chicago.
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