“Robert Prevost was a missionary bishop who gave himself fully to his people and who played an important role in the church of his new country, Peru. In fact, he became a Peruvian citizen,” Canadian Cardinal Michael Czerny, who studied in Chicago, said in an interview Friday.

Cardinal Robert Prevost has been announced as the new pontiff and has chosen the name Pope Leo XIV. There are no written rules or official criteria for a pope's name, but they choose names that have meaning in the Catholic tradition.

Pope Leo XIV has told the world's Jewish communities he wants to strengthen the Roman Catholic Church’s dialogue with them, in a message coming after a souring of relations between the Vatican and Israel over the war in Gaza.

Still, it was an exciting moment for the Americans who were at the Vatican that day. Mariner says he and his wife were in a restaurant in Rome at the time, surrounded by dozens of U.S. citizens. When the new pope was announced, Mariner heard many of the patrons joyfully exclaim, “He’s an American!”

Born in the U.S., forged in Peru, chosen in Rome, Leo XIV will helm a church facing debt, division and decline

The team may have newly-elected Pope Leo XIV on its side, thanks to their shared Villanova roots, but the Celtics still blew them out of the Garden, 115-93, this weekend. The Knicks’ late-game heroics from Games 1 and 2 didn’t manifest, as the Celtics managed to make their early 20-point lead stick.

On the second day of the conclave at the Vatican, the cardinal electors chose Chicago-born Cardinal Robert Prevost as the new pope, Leo XIV.

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