‘It was a shocking moment’: New pope’s brother lives in New Lenox

Somewhere in the back of his mind John Prevost thought it might be possible his younger brother Robert could be the first American elected pope of the Catholic Church.

“Not really an idea that it could happen, but there was an inkling of a chance,” Prevost said from his home in south suburban New Lenox Thursday afternoon. “But I really was just as surprised as everyone when they said his name.”

John, a 71-year-old retired Catholic school principal, said he’s had almost no time to process his brother’s ascension to pontiff. A steady stream of calls, emails and texts were overwhelming his senses.

“It’s going to be like this all day isn’t it?” he asked.

Like everyone else, John was watching the drama unfold on television after the white smoke wafted from the Vatican roof.

“It was a shocking moment,” John said of hearing his brother Robert’s name announced. “I was on the phone with my niece and we both couldn’t believe it. Then the phone, the iPad and my cellphone just went nuts.”

The new pope, formerly Robert Prevost and now Pope Leo XIV, is the youngest of three boys raised by a school superintendent father and school librarian mother in south suburban Dolton.

“It was just a normal childhood,” John, the middle child, said. “It’s kind of strange, but all three of us knew what we wanted to do very early in life.”

The oldest, Louis, who now lives in Florida, went into the military. John chose a career in education.

“And Rob – that’s we called him since he was little – knew he was going to be a priest from the time he could walk,” John said. “A neighbor once said he was going to be pope someday. How’s that for a prognostication?”

But that’s not talk his younger brother would entertain, John said.

“Absolutely not,” he said. “He didn’t like to joke about it and he didn’t want anything to do with that.”

The veneer slipped a little the night before the conclave when the brothers spoke by phone.

“He said, ‘What should my name be?’” John recalled. “We started rattling off names just to rattle off names. I told him it shouldn’t be Leo because it will be the 13th. But he must’ve done some research to see it’s actually the 14th.”

Most of the new pope’s work for the church has been on the administrative or missionary side, but John recalls being in the pews when his brother delivered the homily during Sunday Mass a few times.

“You think I’m going to critique him now?” he laughed. “There were never any complaints. That’s what I’ll say.”

A large portion of the new pope’s career was spent in South America, often Peru.

“Truth be told, his heart lies with missionary work,” John said. “Helping the poorer side of life or the downtrodden, so to speak.”

It was during his time in South America the new pope would catch the attention of an Argentine priest named Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who would later become Pope Francis, the man Pope Leo XIV succeeded.

“I seem to think that’s how their friendship started out,” John said.

John hasn’t heard from his brother yet since his election. The new pope is one of the few people who hasn’t tried calling John today.

“I haven’t had time to cry yet,” he said. “I think when I’m alone and can gather my thoughts about all this it will hit me. So far, there’s been no time to react.”

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