As surprised and overjoyed as most Americans were to learn that the newly elected Pope was from Chicago, Pope Leo XIV’s oldest brother Louis Prevost was in shock.
When the announcement was made, Prevost was lying in bed at his Port Charlotte home, resting from an illness, when his wife Deborah called and said there was white smoke, the first sign from the Sistine Chapel that a new Pope had been elected. He dutifully turned on his TV with a sense of anticipation, knowing his youngest brother, Cardinal Robert Prevost could be named. He read just a few days before that his brother was in the top three candidates just before the conclave started on May 7, 2025.
Prevost described the moment when the Archdeacon started announcing the election of the new Pope from the balcony overlooking St. Peter’s Square: “I heard him say ‘Roberto.’ It was like, it’s Rob. It’s never gonna be the same. What are we going to do? Yes, it’s Rob! If I wasn’t sitting down in bed, I would have collapsed.”
Prevost said that when he has the opportunity to see his brother, he is going to give him a huge hug, offering the type of congratulations that only an older brother can give. “When I see him, I will still call him Rob, until someone tells me not to.”
“When we were little kids, my brother (John) and I used to raise cane, but Rob was always the holy one,” Prevost said. “We used to tease him, ‘You’re going to be Pope.’ ‘You’re too holy.’ My other bother and I would play cops and robbers, while Rob would always want to play priest. Our mom would set up the ironing board and he would offer us communion with Necco wafers. We knew the Holy Spirit was in him.”
Prevost said he was being harassed by juvenile gang members in south Chicago, when his youngest brother, Rob, the new Pope, intervened and deescalated the situation. “He made friends with them. They never bothered me again. You knew he was different. He can get along with anyone.”
Admitting some bias, Prevost believes there’s no one better suited for the papacy, reflecting on his brother’s early commitment to the priesthood. “He knew from an early stage, he wanted to be a priest, and he did. He got out of grammar school, and went right to the seminary,” Prevost said.
He also offered an example of his brother’s humanity, noting that a few months ago, he asked his brother, who was then a Cardinal serving at the Vatican, to reach out to a friend whose husband was dying. “He called her from Rome and they prayed together. She was the first person to call me after the announcement. She said, ‘Oh my God, he’s the Pope, your brother was elected Pope, and I talked to him!”
Following the announcement, the early communication between the brothers came via text messages. As of May 14, Prevost and his wife were unsure if they could be present for the Mass of Inauguration of Pope Leo XIV’s Petrine Ministry, to be held in St. Peter’s Square on May 18. Their daughter, who lives in Amarillo, Texas, was also trying to go.
Prevost and his wife attend St. Maximilian Kolbe Parish in Port Charlotte, where Administrator Father Claudio Stewart invited the couple to speak following Mass on May 11.
Prevost told the parishioners, “While Rob might be Pope Leo, he is still a man of the people, a good human being with a caring soul. He was a missionary who helped the poor and built schools. That is who he is at his core.”
John Sanders, a Parishioner at St. Maximilian Kolbe, said the Prevosts shared heart-warming stories, the message “very much from the perspective of an older brother, which made the new Pope seem more relatable than would ordinarily be the case.”
Father Stewart said it was a blessing for all the Parish to hear from the Prevosts.
Prevost said his brother visited Port Charlotte during the winter 2023-2024 after attending a fundraiser in Naples. “That was the last time I saw him before he became Pope.”
Before the conclave began, the three brothers spoke on a three-way call about the possibility of Rob being elected Pope. “We knew it was a possibility because he was a Cardinal. But he was American, so that was against him. He was young too. But, he had been head of the Augustinian Order for 12 years, that took him all over the world. That was a positive. You just didn’t know.”
When he asked his brother what would happen if he won, would he accept it, he said, “I will accept it; it’s God’s will; it’s in His hands.”
The time since the announcement has been a whirlwind for Prevost, fielding calls from family and friends, while also doing interviews for media from around the world. “My life has changed. My brother is the Pope. Everything is different.”
Prevost is still coming to terms with the new reality that his own brother is the Pope.
He knows also his relationship with his brother will change forever and that they will likely not speak as often due to his duties as the Holy Father. “Even a week later, saying the name Pope Leo still doesn’t feel right. He will always be my brother. In some ways I feel I lost my brother, but gained a Pope.”
