In the many frenzied media reports predicting Pope Francis’ successor, Chicago-born Robert Francis Prevost flew mostly under the radar.
But on May 8, after a two-day, four-ballot conclave, the 69-year-old emerged as the new world leader of Catholicism’s 1.4 billion faithful — defying all conventional wisdom about the United States and its pope-producing capabilities.
For Chicagoan Ron Onesti, watching Prevost take his first steps onto St. Peter’s balcony as Pope Leo XIV was “like seeing the Bears score a touchdown at the Super Bowl.”
“It was, this can’t be happening. Then bam!,” Onesti, an entertainment executive and self-described devout Catholic, told Italy Magazine. “We’ve got a lot of sources of pride here in Chicago. But to say that the pope is from your hometown, well, that takes pride to a whole other level.”
The new pope’s Chicago ties aren’t Onesti’s only cause for celebration, however. As president of the Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans, Onesti is one of many prominent Italian-American voices who have spoken of a kinship with Leo that goes beyond shared geography and religion.
The Italian-American thread
The National Italian American Foundation and the Order Sons and Daughters of Italy in America — both based in Washington, D.C., and respectively described as the “leading” and the “oldest” organizations for Italian-Americans in the U.S. — separately released statements calling Leo XIV “the first Italian-American pope,” citing his father Louis Marius Prevost’s roots.
The Vatican confirmed that the elder Prevost was of French and Italian descent in a brief biography of Leo released last week. Though much media coverage has since focused on Leo’s Creole roots in New Orleans on his mother’s side, leading Italian outlets including state broadcaster Rai and newspaper Il sole 24 ore have explored the Italian limb of Leo’s family tree. Many have speculated that the Prevost family has ties to Piedmont — specifically to the town of Settimo Rottaro, where the last name Prevosto is still relatively common.
Such discussions of the new pope’s multilayered identity have felt poignant for Italian-Americans who recognize, in Leo’s complex lineage, echoes of their own stories.
“For many of us, this moment resonates not only with our religious devotion but also with our cultural heritage,” said Nanette Scarpellini Metz, production manager of the Italian Catholic Federation (ICF), a national non-profit promoting Catholic values and shared Italian culture.
The “neighborhood guy”
Legions of Italian-Americans have been playing connect-the-dots between the Prevost of the past, the Pope Leo XIV of the future, and the histories of their own communities.
Some, like Villanova University alumnus Michael Simone, are intrigued by the novelty of a U.S.-born pope and just pleasantly amused to be a few degrees closer to the papacy.
“It’s a huge surprise to have an American pope,” Simone, who shares his alma mater with Leo, told Italy Magazine. “And the fact that he’s an Augustinian and a Villanova graduate is the icing on the cake.”
Others, like Teresa Helfand, president of ICF’s Chicago branch, are taking the long view of where Leo fits in the Italian-American narrative. She pointed to the commonalities between Leo and the Italian-born Mother Frances Cabrini, who had deep ties to Chicago and was canonized by the Vatican in 1946 for her work with Italian immigrant populations at the turn of the 20th century.
Mother Cabrini “helped the less fortunate, educated children and spread the gospel message” and Leo’s service is expected to continue in that vein, Helfand told Italy Magazine.
The new pope’s decades of work with the poor in Peru and his early emphasis on migrants, working people and those suffering in war zones have already prompted some to cast him as Francis 2.0. But there’s at least one area where Leo significantly diverges from Francis: he’s a native English speaker.
For Joseph Tamagni, assistant director of the Italian program at Middlebury Language Schools, the enhanced connection to American Catholics that Leo’s English will facilitate is a positive thing: “When you meet someone and speak their language, I think it just creates more goodwill,” he said. “The fact that this pope speaks all these languages is huge.”
Tamagni’s own Italian-trained ear perked up when, during Leo’s inaugural address in Italian and Spanish, the new pope mentioned Our Lady of Pompei, who is honored by Catholics on May 8. Commonly associated with Italian-American immigrant communities, she’s the namesake of Tamagni’s local church, and he appreciated Leo giving her what he laughingly called “a shoutout.”
Some Chicagoans, however, may have been miffed that Leo made no similar “shoutout” to his Windy City roots in his initial address. But Ron Onesti, the entertainment executive, wasn’t one of them.
“Chicago is a city of neighborhoods, with over 80 ethnic groups represented in this town across different areas,” Onesti told Italy Magazine. “For us, calling someone a ‘neighborhood guy’ is one of the best compliments you can give, because a neighborhood guy is someone you can trust, someone who gets it, someone who stands up for what they believe in, but also welcomes other cultures, other neighborhoods to their neighborhood. That’s what this pope is. And if you dig deep into the concept of a neighborhood guy, well, I think it’s what the world needs right now.”
