Seniors at St. Rita High School on Chicago's Southwest Side were given a pretty straightforward assignment this week: choose a potential pope and give a presentation. Then came the curveball from the papal conclave.

Chicago native Robert Prevost has been elected pope, becoming the first U.S.-born pontiff in a historic move that defies centuries of Vatican tradition.

Taking the name Leo XIV, the American was elected to be the 267th pontiff and spiritual leader of the world's 1.4 billion Roman Catholics.

Cardinal Robert Prevost from Chicago has been elected Pope Leo XIV, bringing pride and excitement to the city.

Pope Leo XIV has been known as the “Latin Yankee” in Rome for the decades he worked in Peru, ministering to the dispossessed and marginalized.

Cardinal Robert Prevost, a Chicago-area native and former substitute teacher at St. Rita High School, has become the first American pope in the 2,000-year history of the Catholic Church.

Patrick Feltz, 28, of Villa Park, sports his homemade pope hat while waiting to enter Rate Field in Chicago for a baseball game between the Chicago White Sox and the Miami Marlins on May 10, 2025. It took Feltz 15 minutes to make the pope hat by following instructions from a Youtube video. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune)

The Catholic religious order's Chicago-based province released a statement about Robert Prevost, who this week became Pope Leo XIV, saying he was "always seeking to protect the innocent and offer healing to victims,