CHICAGO (WLS) — Of course Chicagoans are celebrating the new pope at home as well.
A Thanksgiving Mass is scheduled to begin on Friday morning, bringing together Catholics from the region to commemorate the milestone of the first American pope, who was also born in Chicago.
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The announcement of 69-year-old Pope Leo XIV, originally named Robert Francis Prevost and hailing from the South Side and raised in the southern suburb of Dolton, has elicited widespread reactions.
At the Catholic Theological Union in Hyde Park, where Pope Leo XIV pursued his Master’s of Divinity, there exists a grainy yearbook photo of Prevost from 1981.
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Those that know him at the school describe Prevost as “down to earth”with a great sense of humor.
Sister Barbara Reed, the president of the school, says Pope Leo was simply known as ‘Bob’ in those days.
Reed said that never in her wildest dreams did she think the small Hyde Park school would produce now the leader of the Catholic Church.
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“I couldn’t have heard what I just thought I heard and I had to wait again to listen to hear them say it and then they went on to say Augustinian and I said, ‘Oh my gosh! It really is,'” Reed said.
At Holy Name Cathedral. the church was actually in Mass when the news broke about Prevost being elected pope.
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Father Gregory Sakowicz says the cathedral erupted as if the Bears had won the Super Bowl.
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