Butler County residents reflect on historic election of first Pope from U.S.
Though Heidi Nicholls Bowser left Chicago’s South Side for Butler more than 30 years ago, the ties to her birthplace have never faded away.
So when she learned that Pope Leo XIV — the first pope from the United States — was born in the same Chicago hospital just decades before her, the news felt deeply personal.
“The new pope being from the South Side is ginormous,” she said. “My friends and I were speculating that he’s got to be a (Chicago White) Sox fan and not a (Chicago) Cubs fan. Then I did some more digging and found out that he went to Catholic Seminary four blocks from where I grew up on the same street.”
Robert Francis Prevost was born at what was then called Mercy Hospital on South Prairie Avenue and 34th Street on Sept. 14, 1955.
Prevost’s family lived in a brick home on East 141st Place that they purchased in 1949.
His father, Louis Prevost, was a Navy veteran of World War II and later served as a school superintendent in Chicago’s southern suburbs. Mildred Martinez Prevost, his wife, was a librarian with a master’s degree in education. Two of her sisters were nuns.
Prevost also has ties to Pennsylvania. He earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Villanova University in 1977 before joining the Order of St. Augustine the following year.
While Bowser is of the Lutheran denomination, she said Prevost’s monumental achievement should be lifted up regardless of religion or creed.
“I love it,” she said. “For us Chicago people, especially us South Siders, we like to see us rising to the top. We don’t care what religion it is or what walk of life it is. We want to be rising to the top.”
Meanwhile, the Rev. Douglas Lorence of St. Michael Ukrainian Catholic Church in Lyndora said that he appreciates an American native reaching the pinnacle of the Catholic Church.
“I’m very pleased we now have an American Pope,” he said. “This is history, and I love history.”
Although Lorence acknowledged he still has more to learn, he praised Prevost’s extensive ministry work in Peru.
“I haven’t heard too much about him except the good he’s done in the foreign countries in South America,” he said. “Very intellectual and astute fellow. What I was pleased about was that he chose the title Leo XIV because of his admiration for Pope Leo XIII who was a very, very good pope.”
With all of the turmoil in the world right now, the new pope will be charged with guiding the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics, while acting as a global diplomat as the head of Vatican City.
“I’d say just pray for him,” Lorence said. “He’s got a big task ahead of him, but I think he has the stamina, wherewithal and spirituality to handle it.”
