Chicago residents celebrate ‘Da Pope’ as Leo XIV, formerly Robert Prevost, begins papal duties
Over at Holy Name Cathedral, the seat of the Archdiocese of Chicago, some 200 worshippers packed the pews at the 8 a.m. Mass, far more than usual for an early Friday morning.
“Thanks for the gift of new Pope Leo XIV,” Bishop Lawrence Sullivan said after handing out Communion to dozens of attendees.
And as the music from the organ filled the sanctuary, Sister Maryjane Okolie, who is based on the South Side, was beaming with pride.
“God has chosen the right person,” Okolie said.
But Okolie said she did not expect the cardinals to chose a Southsider.
“I was shocked,” the sister said. “And then hearing he is from Chicago, South Side, oh, my goodness. God is great!”
Chicago is home to a large Latino community, including Peruvian Americans, and they too were rejoicing to have somebody in the Vatican who is very familiar with their region and culture.
Leo’s mother, Mildred Martinez Prevost, was of Spanish heritage, and the new pontiff spent two decades in Peru, where he was the apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Chiclayo and later the bishop of Chiclayo, even becoming a naturalized citizen of the South American country.
“As a Latin American living here in Chicago, I feel so proud that the pope is from Chicago and that he has dedicated a large part of his life serving the Latin American community,” one woman told Telemundo.
“Being from Chicago and also Latin American, he knows about the suffering of the people. It makes me happy that we have things in common,” one man said.
Another Peruvian man told Telemundo that the pope spent “about 10 years in the city where I’m from, Chiclayo in Peru.”
“I have family who received their confirmation from him,” he said, referring to the Catholic sacrament.
In Rome, Cardinal Blase Cupich, head of the Chicago Archdiocese, told NBC News’ Lester Holt that they did indeed pick the right man for the job.
“Well, he’s an individual who is just very real,” Cupich said. “What you see is what you get. He’s authentic. He cares about people. He wants to do the right thing. He’s not afraid to take a decision, and it’s been said he doesn’t pick a fight, but he won’t run from it either.”
It wasn’t just Chicagoans putting claims on Leo. The president of Villanova University in Pennsylvania, from which the pontiff graduated in 1977 with a math degree, said he emailed Leo not long after he was unveiled as the new pope.
“I wrote to him yesterday congratulating him, and I jokingly said to him, ‘Maybe I can get you for next year’s commencement speaker,’” the Rev. Peter Donohue told MSNBC’s Ana Cabrera on Friday. “And he wrote back and he said, ‘Thanks, Peter. I appreciate it but I’m probably going to be busy.’”