She might have missed her divine moment!
A bank employee in Chicago mistakenly hung up on Pope Leo XIV when he attempted to update his address to the Vatican, thinking it was a prank call, as shared by the pope’s brother, John Prevost.
According to Prevost, the pontiff encountered a less-than-angelic customer service episode last summer, just two months into his papacy, when he called to modify his personal information. Prevost shared this anecdote on CNN’s OutFront on Wednesday.
“The conversation dragged on, so I mentioned, ‘Ma’am, it might be useful to know you’re speaking with my brother who is currently in Rome,’” said Prevost, who was on the line with the 70-year-old leader of the Catholic Church.
Prevost remembered adding, “‘You’re talking to the Pope.’”
Her response was a skeptical, “Oh really?” before she promptly disconnected the call.
Prevost didn’t reveal which bank it was.
The teller had believed she was the target of a Prince-Albert-in-a-can-style “prank call,” and a local cleric later sorted things out for the pope, Prevost said.
Earlier in the call, the pope gave the bank worker his Social Security number and answered a list of security questions to change his address and phone number, Prevost said.
The worker then told him had to come in person to finalize the changes.
“She said, ‘Okay, what’s the bank account number?’” Prevost said. “He gave it to her. ‘What is your Social Security number?’ He gave it to her. ‘What was your formal address?’ He gave it to her. There were about four or five different questions. He gave them all to her.”
Pope Leo’s friend, Rev. Tom McCarthy, told a group Catholics in Naperville, Illinois, a similar story about the hang-up experience last week.
“Could you imagine being known as the woman who hung up on the pope?” he quipped.
