New Lenox, Ill. – When the white smoke left the Sistine chapel revealing that a new Pope had been chosen, John Prevost lit his television in Illinois, called his niece and saw astonished as his Brother’s name was announced.
“She started screaming because it was her uncle and I were at the time of disbelief that this cannot be possible because she is too far from what we think would happen,” Prevost said Thursday in an interview with Associated Press from his home in New Lenox, Illinois.
Then, he said he felt an intense feeling of pride that his brother, Cardinal Robert Prevosthad become the 267º Pontiff To direct the Catholic Church, making the Born in Chicago Missionary the first American Pope.
“It’s a great honor; it’s quite once in a lifetime,” he said. “But I think it’s a responsibility and I think it’s going to lead to bigger and better things, but I think people will see it very close to see what they are doing.”
Robert Prevost, a 69 -year -old member of the Augustinian religious order Who spent his career ministering in Peru, took the name of Leo XIV.
John Prevost described his brother as very worried about the poor And those who have no voice. He said he hopes to be a “second Pope Francis.”
“It will not really be to the left and it will not be far away,” he added. “Something right in the middle.”
At a time during the interview, John Prevost realized that he had lost several calls from his brother, so he called the new Pope.
Leo told him that he was not interested in being part of the interview and after a brief message of congratulations and discussion in which they talked like two brothers about travel arrangements, they hung.
The new Pope grew the youngest of three children. John Prevost, who was just a year older than him, said he remembers that Robert Prevost was very good at school when he was a child and enjoyed playing labels, monopoly and risk.
From an early age, he said he knew his brother was going to be a priest. Although he did not expect him to become Pope, he reminded a neighbor who predicted that the same thing when Robert Prevost was just a first -degree student.
“She felt that at 6 years,” he said. “How did that, who knows. He took so long, but here he is, first American Pope.”
When Robert Prevost graduated from eighth grade, he went to the School of Seminary, said his brother.
“There is a whole period where we really didn’t grow together,” he said. “It was only on vacation that we had contact together.”
These days, the brothers speak on the phone every day, said John Prevost. Robert Prevost will call him and discuss everything from politics to religion and even play the Wordle of the day.
John Prevost said that he is not sure how long his brother will have to speak as the new Pope and how they will drive to keep in the future.
“It’s strange not to have someone to talk to,” he said.
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Golden reported from Seattle.
