When Robert Francis Prevost spoke in Spanish to his crowd of supporters for the first time in St. Peter’s Square last week, Edgewater resident Julio Fernandez said it made him tear up. “I’ve lived in Chicago for many years. And that he is from both places makes me double proud,” Fernandez, 74, a retired doctor from northern Peru, said.

Before becoming Pope Leo XIV, Cardinal Robert Prevost presided over one of the most revolutionary reforms of Pope Francis’ pontificate by having women serve on the Vatican board that vets nominations for bishops.

According to the Opus Dei communications office in Rome, the May 14 encounter was 'a brief meeting in which the Pope expressed his closeness and affection.'

Donal Walsh’s powerful message against suicide moved a future pope, who honoured the Kerry teen days before his death

Pope Leo XIV has apparently made peace with Jannik Sinner. The top-ranked tennis player visited the new pope on Wednesday, gave him a tennis racket and offered to play, during an off day for Sinner at the Italian Open.

ANALYSIS: Through his words, gestures and even liturgical picks, the new Pope is synthesizing what came before him.

A Midwesterner, like the new Pope Leo XIV, Burger swelled with pride and saw a little opportunity for motivation. “Basically, I kind of thought: New Pope, new me,” Burger said Wednesday night. “He’s a Midwestern guy like me. I was proud. And since he’s been elected Pope, we’ve been rather hot.”

Heather and Dominic Jaroch tell PEOPLE about the time Pope Leo XIV, then simply known as “Father Bob," flew back to Chicago to preside over their wedding as a favor to her late father Ed

Vice President JD Vance will attend the inaugural mass of Pope Leo XIV following the pontiff’s historic election as the first American leader of the Roman Catholic Church.