Seniors at St. Rita High School on Chicago's Southwest Side were given a pretty straightforward assignment this week: choose a potential pope and give a presentation. Then came the curveball from the papal conclave.

Cardinal Robert Prevost from Chicago has been elected Pope Leo XIV, bringing pride and excitement to the city.

Taking the name Leo XIV, the American was elected to be the 267th pontiff and spiritual leader of the world's 1.4 billion Roman Catholics.

Pope Leo XIV has been known as the “Latin Yankee” in Rome for the decades he worked in Peru, ministering to the dispossessed and marginalized.

Patrick Feltz, 28, of Villa Park, sports his homemade pope hat while waiting to enter Rate Field in Chicago for a baseball game between the Chicago White Sox and the Miami Marlins on May 10, 2025. It took Feltz 15 minutes to make the pope hat by following instructions from a Youtube video. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune)

The Catholic religious order's Chicago-based province released a statement about Robert Prevost, who this week became Pope Leo XIV, saying he was "always seeking to protect the innocent and offer healing to victims,

The sports loyalties of Pope Leo XIV became a topic of conversation almost as soon as the white smoke emerged from the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel.