Pastor’s Desk ~ May 10, 2026

Dear Fellow Parishioners,

This past Friday, May 8, was the one-year anniversary of the election of Pope Leo XIV. I had to look up the date just to be sure. Pope Leo has needed to make several adjustments, first from his life as a Roman Cardinal, and before that as a Peruvian bishop and citizen. In fact, Pope Leo holds citizenship in three countries: the United States, the Republic of Peru, and the Vatican City State.

About two months after he became pope, he began to put his personal affairs in order. His Holiness called his bank back in Chicago to change his address and other contact information. He correctly answered all of the security questions posed to him by the customer service agent. Still, she was not satisfied, and told the Pope that he would need to visit his branch office to settle the matter in person. He told the employee that it would be impossible for him to visit the branch in person. Then the Pope asked her, “Would it help if I told you that I am the Pope?” She assumed it was a prank call and hung up on His Holiness.

Fortunately, the Pope knew someone in his Augustinian religious community in Chicago who happened to be friends with the president of that particular bank . He called the friend, and got it straightened out. The Pope should know better than anyone that it helps to have friends in high places. And there’s something remotely gratifying knowing that even Vicar of Christ doesn’t get better customer service than the rest of us.

Pope Leo is of French, Italian, Spanish and Louisiana Creole background. His maternal grandfather and grandmother, Joseph and Marie, were born in the Dominican Republic (still under Spanish occupation) and New Orleans, respectively. In census documents of 1900 in New Orleans, they were described as “black” or “mulatto”. (Today we might say “bi-racial” or “mixed African and European heritage”.) In the census documents of 1920, after they had moved to Chicago, they were listed as “white.” The South was much more racially exclusionary; in the North, they could “pass.” Two of Pope Leo’s maternal aunts were religious sisters – one a Mercy Sister, the other a Sister of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (B.V.M.) – the same order that taught at our parish schools for nearly a century.

Thanks to technology, which has given us the ability to be busybodies, you can look up the pope’s childhood home on Zillow or Realtor.com (“Own a piece of papal history…”). It’s 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, 1,050 square feet, and located at 212 East 141st Place, Dolton, IL. Since the Pope left home after the 8th grade to attend seminary high school, his parents and brothers rarely saw him after that, so his two remaining brothers each could have their own room.

Blessings, Fr. Bill Donahue