Pope Leo XIV as a listener, administrator and leader

Longtime friends of the first American Pope, Leo XIV, have revealed the human side of the church’s new spiritual leader and the qualities behind his journey from Chicago to the Vatican.

Pope Leo XIV at the Shrine of the Mother of Good Counsel in Genazzano, just outside Rome. Picture: Getty Images

“My phone was blowing up when that white smoke was coming out,” Tom Harrington said. “My phone was blowing up saying, ‘hey, your guy is the Pope’. I was so proud I started crying, because it’s very emotional.”

Friends of the first American Pope, Leo XIV, were surprised and overjoyed by his election last week. But they also saw the moment as an opportunity for fresh leadership for the church under a new figure with a different combination of skills and experience.

Those who have known Robert Prevost for decades describe him as a quiet yet resolute servant of God. His key qualities: a great listener, an experienced administrator, a sound business mind and a quiet humility.

They paint a picture of a firm individual with vision, and someone capable of making tough decisions.

Mr Harrington, a long-time friend of “Father Bob,” said the Pope was definitely a “man’s man” who enjoyed telling jokes, eating pizza, having chocolate cake for dessert and going to White Sox games in his home town of Chicago.

Tom Harrington, 70, eating pizza at the restaurant he used to go to with Pope Leo XIV to discuss the future direction of St Rita’s school when he was on the board of directors. Picture: Joe Kelly

While he hails from Chicago, the new Pope’s experience and outlook are undoubtedly global. He was named in 2015 by Pope Francis as the Bishop of Chiclayo in Peru – but he also understands what life is like for those struggling to get by in Middle America.

“We would go out to lunch sometimes. We’d have dinners. We’d go to White Sox games,” Mr Harrington said. “He’s a priest. He’s not paying a mortgage. He’s not paying his cell-phone bill. You know what I mean? But, he got all those. He knew people were sacrificing, sending their kids to Catholic schools, paying tuition. Because his own mother and father sacrificed.”

Married with four kids, Mr Harrington said he still found his friend’s elevation as the spiritual leader for 1.4 billion Catholics around the world “unbelievable”.

Noelle Neis told The Australian that she remembered the young Robert as a deeply religious boy, even at the age of 12 or 13, because his family attended the Saint Mary of the Assumption parish church in the south of Chicago in what she described as a “blue collar”, working-class area. She recalled that his mother was musical and performed in a parish production of Fiddler on the Roof.

“I know they always sat behind us every Sunday at 9.15am mass … He was quiet. He was devout. I would never have imagined that he’d be Pope though,” Ms Neis said. “He was extremely bright. Very bright. He was probably on the quieter side. If I look back on it, I could say he was humble.”

Robert Prevost with Pope John Paul II. Picture: Courtesy of the Midwest Augustinian Province of Our Mother of Good Counsel

She recalled that, when he prayed, the young Robert’s hands were never pointed down like other churchgoers’, deep in prayer. His fingers were “always pointed up, up toward heaven. Like in church. I remember that.”

The man who would become the first American Pope, was born in Chicago in 1955, joined the Order of Saint Augustine in 1977, and was ordained in 1982. In 1999, he became the Provincial Prior or religious leader for the Augustinian Order in the Midwest, and was based in Chicago. In this role, he also took responsibility for a grouping of other international ministries – including in northern Peru, where he had served as a missionary in the 1980s.

In 2001, he was elected Prior General of the Order of Augustine and became the leader of the global community of Augustine friars with responsibility for shaping the future mission of the religious order.

Mr Harrington said his four decades of involvement and volunteering at St Rita’s – a boy’s high school rooted in the Augustinian tradition – allowed him to befriend “Father Bob” who took on oversight of the school when he served as the Prior Provincial based in Chicago.

“He was just great to work with, because in my dealings with him, it was either white or black. There was no grey areas,” he said. “I had two different relationships with him, really. I became a friend and I was kind of a worker with him. We shared different thoughts about the school. What direction he wanted the school to go in, and, as a board member, you want someone to tell you ‘what’s our mission?’

“He was that leader that could give you that vision.”

He would sometimes take Leo to Rosangela’s Pizzeria in Evergreen Park to share a meal and talk – the same venue to which he took The Australian at the weekend.

Tom Harrington, 70, with The Australian's Joe Kelly at Rosangela’s Pizzeria, established in 1955 in Evergreen Park.

Father Tom McCarthy, an Augustinian priest and graduate of St Rita, where he now serves as director of community relations, has known the Pope for more than 40 years.

“I entered the Augustinian order after I graduated from St Rita High School, so that was in 1983. I was 18 years old, and so I was new and a young seminarian and he was a newly ordained priest by that time, a missionary in Peru,” Father Tom said.

He said Leo would have a strong international outlook, noting that – in each of his two six- year terms as the head of the Augustinian Order – his responsibility was to “visit every single Augustinian community in the world – in over 50 countries”.

“So he is truly someone who has been literally around the world. When people say, ‘how was he elected, we weren’t supposed to have an American’. Well, I don’t think the Cardinals are political. They saw who he was and what he could do.”

Father Tom McCarthy (second from left) at Saint Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, next to Pope Leo XIV and Father Bernie Scianna OSA. The three of them are in the Augustinian Order. Picture: Supplied

Father Tom said the Pope was already a “great administrator” and “very smart. He listens to people. And he is not afraid to do what he needs to do”.

Asked about how Leo was positioned on the political spectrum within the church, Father Tom said he was “authentically Catholic, and as Augustinians, we are pretty middle of the road”.

“I think that you are going to find a very even-keeled man,” he said. “Someone who will listen to everyone, but won’t be afraid to make decisions.

“I think Pope Francis was a mentor to him. I don’t think he’ll be Francis. He’ll be himself. But by choosing the name Leo XIV, you know Leo XIII was the person who wrote Rerum Novarum about the dignity of work, about the dignity of the poor, the dignity about the right to unionise.”

On how political and vocal the Pope might be given his past comments – including an apparent criticism on his social media account of US Vice President JD Vance – Father Tom said “he’ll have to decide what to do. It’s very different to say something when you’re not in a position. But now he’s a head of state”.

“I don’t think he’ll be afraid to speak the truth,” he said. “I don’t think he’s going to cause consternation.”

Father Tom McCarthy and Deacon John Donahue, president of St Rita of Cascia High School, photographed in front of an image of St Augustine and St Monica. Picture: Joe Kelly

Mr Harrington said the first American Pope would not let his work be disrupted by Donald Trump’s presidency.

“Donald Trump will not sway Bob Prevost,” he said. “Trump will never sway his opinion about the Catholic Church. Pope Leo has a vision for the Catholic Church. Or, as he goes along, he will have a stronger vision or a bigger vision. But politics, I believe, will never come into … play with Pope Leo the 14th. I don’t think there’s a chance in hell that will ever happen.”

“No one’s going to tell him how to run the Catholic Church. I think some of his ideas will be old school. And I think he realises that some stuff, he’s going to have to think outside of the box some to get the Catholic Church to move maybe in sort of a different direction.”

Mr Harrington also reflected on how “Father Bob” was a practical person and was able to make a real difference in the lives of others.

“Sometimes there’s a bump in the road and people need help. They need financial help. And Father Bob was the kind of guy who would say, ‘We need to help these people. We can’t let them leave our school because of financial (reasons). We have to go to our alumni and have our alumni help us and raise funds for the school to make sure these kids come out to be good Christians, good Augustinian-valued people’,” he said.

The Very Reverend Gregory Sakowicz, rector of the Holy Name Cathedral – the spiritual home for Catholics in Chicago – told The Australian that he “saw the smoke on TV” when the Pope was elected.

“I happened to go to the window in my room and the sun came out,” he said. “I had a 12 o’clock mass. So I started the 12 o’clock mass knowing there’d been white smoke. But I don’t know the name (of the new Pope).”

During Holy Communion someone told him the new pope was Cardinal Robert Prevost from Chicago.

“I said ‘Wow, thank you’ and keep giving out Holy Communion. At the end of mass, I told the whole congregation. The place erupted in applause like the Chicago Bears had just won the Super Bowl,” he said. “The place went crazy … In fact, I’m still in shock.”