Pope Leo XIV's brother John Prevost
said after his younger sibling's election as 267th leader of the
Catholic Church Thursday night that it had been a shock and he
couldn't believe it.
"It was a shocking moment. I was on the phone with my niece and
we couldn't believe it. Then the cell phone, the iPad and the
home phone went crazy," Prevost described for the first time to
the media the moment of his 69-year-old brother Robert's
election as pontiff.
Leo XIV is the youngest of three children, raised by a father
who is a school superintendent and a mother who is a librarian
in the southern suburbs of Chicago.
"We had a normal childhood. It's a little strange, but all three
of us knew what we wanted to do from an early age," said the
71-year-old former principal of a Catholic school.
"Rob knew he was going to be a priest from the time he could
walk," John said.
"A neighbor once told him he would be pope one day. That was a
good prediction, right?"
The pontiff's brother said they spoke on the phone the night
before the conclave began and discussed what name he would
choose if he were elected pope.
"I told him not to choose Leo because he would be 13th (an
unlucky number, ed.), but he apparently did some research," he
said.
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