Pope Leo XIV: Villanova community rejoices as an alum is to become the first pope from the United States

Philadelphia Archbishop Nelson Pérez was 38,000 feet in the air when a text came in announcing the arrival of a new pope.

“An American, wow” Pérez recalled thinking, taking a minute of his returning flight home from Rome to let the news sink in. Having known Robert Prevost from his time at the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, Pérez described the new pontiff as a man with a compassionate heart that radiates peace.

“He has a desire to listen to people,” Pérez said. “When he speaks to you, he listens, and you almost get the sense that you are the only person in the world.”

Robert Prevost's internet history shows a mix of tweets against JD Vance and Donald Trump's policies, but also Snoopy memes. As the first pope with a Twitter history, the internet is reading it all.

With Thursday’s announcement that Prevost would become Pope Leo XIV, the internet is scouring his X (formerly Twitter) archive for breadcrumbs about his likes, dislikes, and overall vibe.

It’s a tried and true practice people use to probe the internet’s latest main character: Is the person going viral a good person? Do they have bad takes? Should they be canceled?

Brian Kerwin, 67, knew nothing about Cardinal Robert Prevost despite both having graduated from Villanova University in 1977. That didn’t stop him from placing bets that Prevost would become the next pope.

“They thought I was crazy,” Kerwin said of his friends, none of whom had the guts to place bets. “Odds were only 2%” in Prevost’s favor."

Kerwin ultimately won big: Prevost became Pope Leo XVI on Thursday afternoon, the second day of the conclave deciding on Pope Francis' successor. Kerwin said he won $250 after placing $5 on a 50:1 bet. The money, Kerwin said, would be donated to Villanova.

When the new Pope Leo XIV made his official entrance on the balcony of the Vatican to introduce himself as the leader of the Catholic Church, he was wearing the traditional vestment and had a warm, welcoming presence.

But in the Villanova Class of 1977 yearbook is a picture of Robert F. Prevost, suited up, with bushy eyebrows, and some very 1970s sideburns.

» READ MORE: See Pope Leo XIV’s Villanova college yearbook photo

In 2014, he received an honorary Doctor of Humanities, honoris causa for his work.

As Villanova University buzzed with excitement over an alumnus being named the first U.S.-born pope on Thursday, Robert Beck went back through his old grade books.

At 83, his memories of students over the decades are now “too many to count.” But the now-retired Villanova math teacher said Pope Leo XIV’s birth name rang familiar.

And lo, in an old paperbound grade book for a deferential equations course he taught in the spring semester of 1975, he found the name on the roster: Robert F. Prevost.

Julia Osęka, a senior physics major from at St. Joseph’s University, has already had a preview of Cardinal Robert Prevost's leadership. She told The Inquirer that she likes what she sees.

“I think he’s going to pick up right where Pope Francis left off,” said Osęka. “I’m sure he’s going to be a pope that listens to people on the margins who have not been given a voice in the past.”

Osęka, 23, was appointed by Pope Francis as one of the first young laypeople to serve as a voting delegate for the most recent General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, a gathering in Rome where clergy discuss and ratify changes to Catholic doctrine.

Besides the near constant ringing of the St. Thomas of Villanova church bell to celebrate the selection of Pope Leo XIV, it was a serene day on Villanova’s campus. Students posed for graduation photos in dresses and robes, or locked in for finals, and sometimes just laid out on the grassy lawn for a nap to celebrate the end of the year.

But there was still a quiet buzz as news spread that the new pope had once studied here. Students talked to their parents on the phone about the news, and gabbed in groups about Robert Prevost like he was the subject of the latest campus gossip.

“It’s exciting,” said Ivan Stratton, 18. “Maybe it’s a good sign for us."

To Jim Musselman, 67, Pope Leo XIV is just Robert Prevost from philosophy class, the kid who cheered with glee whenever Musselman wore Chicago Cubs merch.

Prevost, who grew up as an altar boy on the South Side of Chicago, met Musselman at Villanova University. They bonded quickly over their odd — and borderline sacrilegious — baseball allegiances.

“I would complain to him about how hard it was to be a Cubs fan in Philadelphia, and he would tell me about how hard it was to be a Cubs fan on the South Side of Chicago because everyone loves the White Sox there, ” said Musselman, who lives in West Chester and graduated from Villanova with a business degree in 1979.

Since the Archdiocese of Philadelphia was established, there have been five local archbishops elevated to cardinal, the current and most recent being Cardinal Justin Francis Rigali.

Rigali, 90, was made cardinal in 2003 by Pope John Paul II, the same year he began serving as archbishop of Philadelphia. He retired as archbishop in 2011 amid the fallout of a second grand jury report on clergy sex abuse in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, though he submitted his resignation the year before when he turned 75, as is expected in the Catholic Church. 

The title of cardinal, however, is a typically a lifelong one, but cardinals lose the ability to participate in papal conclaves at age 80.

The bells pealed at Holy Name Cathedral as a crowd quickly gathered. Schoolchildren mingled outside, whooping and shouting. Bishop Larry Sullivan, vicar general of the Archdiocese of Chicago, told a press conference that it’s an exciting day for the city and the country.

“I would say the Chicago way is that we come together, we share our faith,” he said.

The cathedral’s rector, Father Gregory Sakowicz, said the sun came out in Chicago when the new pope was announced, a coincidence he described as “God’s way of remaining anonymous.”

To his fellow Augustinians, Pope Leo XIV is still just “Bob.”

Allan Fitzgerald, a Catholic priest with Order of Saint Augustine at Villanova University, lived alongside Robert Francis Prevost in Rome in the mid-2000s, two conclaves removed from his becoming pope.

But their shared bond dates back decades earlier, to Villanova’s campus in the 1970s.

His choice of languages reflects his “pastoral care,” said Professor Bruce Morrill of Vanderbilt University in Nashville.

“First and foremost his office is bishop of Rome,” Morrill said after the American pope initially spoke Italian, then switched to the Spanish he used in decades spent ministering in Peru.

“The conventional wisdom was that there would not be an American pope because of geopolitical implications,” said Morrill, a Jesuit priest.

Local Catholics, as well as those around the world, "rejoice abundantly" at Prevost's election, Philadelphia Archbishop Nelson J. Pérez said, calling the man who will be known as Pope Leo XIV one of "deep faith and extraordinary intellectual ability."

"I know that his papacy will be marked by a desire for genuine Christian encounter with all people and that it will be filled with the compassionate love of Jesus Christ," Pérez said in a statement.

Pérez added that he worked with Prevost as a member of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America during the Chicago native's time as the department's president. There, Pérez said, Prevost demonstrated that he was "wonderful, gentle, humble, and spiritual man of God."

One of Prevost’s former Villanova classmates and a longtime friend, the Rev. Paul Galetto, told The Inquirer Thursday that the Catholic church’s newly elected leader is a “very common sense person” who honed a sympathy for labor and immigration issues during his service in South America and, in recent years, maintained a close working relationship with the late Pope Francis.

“He’s just a really good person, he’s a prayerful person,” said Galetto, who oversees St. Paul and St. Mary Magdalene and St. Augustine in Philadelphia. “He has a great sense of humor.”

Of Prevost’s decision to choose Leo as his papal name, Galetto said the choice is evocative of Pope Leo XIII — a champion of labor, working people, and social justice — and marks a continuation of Francis’ legacy.

In many ways, Pope Francis saw Cardinal Robert Prevost as his heir apparent. But there had long been a taboo against electing a pontiff from a country whose geopolitical power loomed so large in the secular sphere.

Prevost, a Chicago native, was seemingly eligible because he’s also a Peruvian citizen and lived for years in Peru, first as a missionary and then as an archbishop.

Francis brought Prevost, a Chicago native, to the Vatican in 2023 to lead the office that vets bishop nominations, one of the most important jobs in the Catholic Church.

Jason Douglas, who lives near Penn's Landing, came to the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul in Philadelphia Thursday after celebrating the new pope with his wife and mother.

He said the much-anticipated moment was exciting and unexpected, as there has never been a pope from the United States before.

“There were a bunch of school kids across from my house, and they all cheered,” Douglas said. “It was amazing.”

Kathy Cedarberg, 69, graduated with an accounting degree from Villanova in 1977. Her class was already remarkable for being the first set of women to be allowed to dorm on campus for all four years. Now, Cedarberg has another reason to celebrate: She went to school with the new pope — only she had no idea who he was.

Cedarberg, who considers herself a devout Catholic, has been following the two-day long conclave casually, but started tuning in more seriously when she saw the white smoke plume from the chimney. Then, she said, it’s been a barrage of texts and calls from her four adult children peppering her with questions about Prevost.

“It’s not that earth-shattering,” said Cedarberg, who lives in Massachusetts. “I don’t remember him, but we would’ve all ate lunch in the same cafeteria and done our wash in the same laundry room.”

Father Arthur Purcaro, Villanova’s assistant vice president for mission and ministry, told CNN he was “perhaps more stunned than the world” over Cardinal Robert Prevost’s elevation to Pope Leo XIV.

“I am just overwhelmed, I am in awe,” Purcaro said on CNN Thursday, just moments after the new pope delivered his first speech to cheering masses at the Vatican.

Purcaro said he and Prevost have been friends for decades and were just at the Vatican together last week. But Purcaco pointed out Prevost “has taken a new name and is a new person” now that he’s been chosen as the 278th pope.

Experts suggest Pope Leo XIV has “middle of the road” politics and had a close relationship with the progressive Pope Francis, suggesting his leadership will not be an about-face from recent years.

Leo, his chosen name, is said to be a nod to Pope Leo XIII, who championed workers’ rights. Chicago is also at the center of the labor rights movement, as noted by Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, who spoke with ABC News.

Speaking to reporters Thursday, President Donald Trump quipped: “What greater honor could there be?” about the role.

White smoke streamed out of the Sistine Chapel, signaling that a new pope had been chosen. Crowds cheered as the Vatican’s balcony doors opened to reveal that Robert Prevost would assume the role.

The news broke Thursday evening in Rome, marking the first U.S. pope in history. Prevost, 69, is a Chicago native and Peruvian citizen. He’s a Villanova graduate. He led the Vatican’s bishops and advised Pope Francis’ selection of bishops around the world, holding several leadership positions within the Catholic church over the years.

Prevost revealed that his chosen papal name would be Pope Leo XIV.