From Chicago’s south suburbs to helping choose the next pope

 

From Chicago’s south suburbs to helping choose the next pope

VATICAN CITY (VATICAN CITY)
Chicago Sun-Times [Chicago IL]

May 3, 2025

By Lauren FitzPatrick

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Cardinal Robert Prevost joins the conclave Wednesday to pick Pope Francis’ successor. His rise in the faith began at a South Side church. “Even as a young teenager, he knew what he wanted to do and where he wanted to go,” a schoolmate says.

To people who grew up in the old St. Mary of the Assumption parish on 137th Street, it’s no surprise that one of their own, Cardinal Robert Prevost, will be part of the conclave that will gather starting Wednesday in the Sistine Chapel to choose the next pope.

Prevost, 69, was elevated to cardinal by Pope Francis in 2023 and now leads the influential Vatican office that selects and manages bishops.

“It was pretty apparent back then that was going to be his route,” John Doughney, a fellow St. Mary’s grade school graduate from 1969, says of Prevost’s path to the priesthood. “Some of us had…