Hours before Robert Prevost became the new Pope, his brother John shared an unexpected anecdote: he had warned him to avoid a name he considered unlucky. However, the then-cardinal ignored the advice and surprised his family by announcing himself as Leo XIV.
John Prevost, brother of the new pontiff and former director of a Catholic school, revealed that he received a call from his brother before the historic white smoke. In that conversation, the future Pope asked him for suggestions on the name he might adopt if he were elected.
The conversation before the conclave and an unexpected piece of advice
"We started throwing out names just for the sake of it," he told the Daily Herald. When the idea of "Leo" came up, John warned him not to use it, mistakenly believing he would be Pope Leo XIII, a number he considered a bad omen. In reality, Robert would be XIV. "He must have researched and saw it was XIV," he later acknowledged with humor.
Despite that warning, the choice of name surprised even his brother. "I was as surprised as everyone when they said his name," he confessed. At that moment, he was talking to his niece, daughter of his other brother, Louis. "Then the phone, the iPad, and my cell phone exploded," he recalled with laughter.
A life dedicated to faith... and baseball
John Prevost assured that since childhood, he and his brothers knew what they wanted to be. In Robert's case, his religious vocation was evident from a young age. "A neighbor once said that one day he would be Pope. How about that prediction?" he recalled in statements to ABC7.
