How White Sox Fan ‘Bob’ Beat the Odds to Become First US Pope
Pope Leo XIV, left, appears on the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica, after becoming the first American pope, in Vatican City on May 8.
Photographer: Alessia Pierdomenico/BloombergHe was known just as Bob, a White Sox fan from the South Side of Chicago. Now mild-mannered cardinal Robert Francis Prevost has been declared Leo XIV, and his predecessor sowed the seeds for his ascent.
It was Pope Francis who elevated the 69-year-old to cardinal in 2023. He took someone who was also a Peruvian citizen and promoted him to one of the most important jobs in the Catholic Church. It coincided with a fraught US presidential campaign that eventually saw Donald Trump return to the White House and politics north and south of the border consumed by the toxic topic of migration.