At Catholic elementary schools in Chicago on Thursday afternoon, the intercoms crackled with a surprise announcement — “Habemus papam!” — prompting students to jump on their chairs and whoop with excitement.

Crowds materialized outside Holy Name Cathedral downtown, considered the mother church of Chicago Catholics, and workers hung yellow and white bunting over the arched doorway.

Across the country, Catholics marveled at the announcement of the first American pope, something that had long seemed impossible. But in Chicago, they heard something else: The pope was one of their own.

Though he spent much of his life abroad, the new Pope Leo XIV, born Robert Francis Prevost, hails from the Chicago area, where he grew up in a suburb just south of the city and attended a Catholic church and school on Chicago’s South Side.

In Chicago, he was largely unknown until the announcement came on Thursday.

Wes Rehwoldt, who attended St. Augustine Seminary High School and then Villanova University with the pope, said he thought the local news in Chicago might have been overplaying the possibility that his former classmate could be selected. Then he heard the name on television.

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