The Rev. Thomas R. McCarthy remembers the lunch like it was yesterday — a humble parish hall on Chicago’s Southwest Side, a home-cooked spread, and the guest of honor: a cardinal from Rome sitting shoulder to shoulder with lifelong parishioners.
“You’d never know he was this big deal,” McCarthy said. “He was just grateful to be there.”
That cardinal, Robert Prevost, is now Pope Leo XIV. And for McCarthy, who has known him for more than four decades, the surprise many Catholics felt when an American was elected pontiff was nowhere to be found.
“We saw it coming,” he said.
Prevost grew up in Dolton and once led the worldwide Augustinian order. He spent years ministering in Peru and more than a decade in Rome. McCarthy, now vocation director for the Midwest Province, calls the new pope “a man of deep experience” and “just so good with people.”
“He was named Prior General of the order, that’s the head Augustinian in the world,” McCarthy said. “We have orders in 50 countries. He traveled to all of them over 12 years. … We knew. We saw.”
Prevost, 69, has served as a bishop in Peru and most recently held key Vatican roles under Pope Francis, who named him a cardinal in 2022. McCarthy said that blend of pastoral, missionary and global leadership uniquely prepared him for the papacy.
“He only ministered four or five years here. The rest of the time he’s been in Peru as a missionary then as bishop. And he’s been in Rome for 12 years,” McCarthy said.
McCarthy first met Prevost 42 years ago, when he joined the Augustinians. Years later, Prevost, then the provincial leader, appointed McCarthy president of St. Rita High School — a big role for a then 35-year-old priest.
“He took a chance on me,” McCarthy said.
While many Americans reacted with disbelief at the idea of a U.S.-born pope, McCarthy sees the election differently.
“It shows how universal the Church is,” he said.
“What it also shows, in my opinion, is the Cardinals, they’re not political. They’re not electing someone just because of the country they’re from. They just want who’s best for the Church at this time,” McCarthy said.
Asked if Leo XIV’s roots might help re-energize the Catholic Church in the U.S., McCarthy said, “I hope so.”
He thinks Pope Francis saw the potential for greatness in Prevost.
“I think Pope Francis saw in Bob Prevost the good qualities. He’s a good priest, a good bishop who cared for people. That’s why he gave him these very important roles,” McCarthy added.
If the new pope does make his way back to Chicago, McCarthy hopes they’ll meet again — to reminisce, maybe share a meal, and reflect on the journey that began in a small Augustinian community decades ago.
“Wouldn’t that be something?” he said.
My ma (rip), would be over joyed for this. He was her priest awhile ago. Granted, he was my age.