‘Stop playing’… Pope Leo to his brothers when they told him he would be 267th pontiff

9/5/2025
Pope Leo XIV did not believe his brothers when they told him on Tuesday, he would be the next Pope of the Roman Catholic Church.
His elder brothers Louis Prevost and John Prevost had always known right from their childhood Robert Prevost would be a priest and a neighbour even predicted that one day he would Pope, that prediction came to pass on Thursday evening of May 8, 2025, when he was elected and adopted the name of Pope Leo XIV.
John Prevost said he spoke to his brother and told him could be the first American Pope. At the time, his younger brother called it “nonsense” and “just talk,” saying, “‘They’re not going to pick an American Pope
“He just didn’t believe it, or didn’t want to believe it.”
Before he was Pope Leo XIV, Robert Prevost grew up the youngest of three brothers in the South Chicago suburb of Dolton.
“He knew right away. I don’t think he’s ever questioned it. I don’t think he’s ever thought of anything else,” John Prevost said.
As a child, Pope Leo XIV “played priest,” John Prevost said. “The ironing board was the altar.”
John Prevost said he expects his brother will follow in the late Pope Francis’ footsteps as a voice for the disenfranchised and poor.
“I think they were two of a kind,” John Prevost said. “I think because they both were in South America at the same time — in Peru and in Argentina — they had the same experiences in working with missions and working with the downtrodden. So, I think that’s the experience that they’re both coming from.”
Louis Prevost, the eldest of the three Prevost brothers, was feeling under the weather and lying in bed at his home in Florida when the big moment came.
“My wife called to tell me there’s white smoke from the chapel,” he said.
“They started reading his name, and when he went, ‘blah, blah, blah, Roberto,’ immediately I knew — that’s Rob,” he said. “I was just thankful I was still in bed lying down, because I might have fallen down.”
Louis Prevost said his brother seemed to always know his calling, and that as young as 4 or 5, the family knew he was destined for great things in the Catholic Church. When his brothers were playing cops and robbers, Leo would “play priest” and distribute Holy Communion with Necco wafers, Louis Prevost said.
“We used to tease him all the time — you’re going to be the pope one day,” he said. “Neighbors said the same thing. Sixty-some years later, here we are.” With ABC News reports