Lisa and Rich Solava and Denise Utter were friends with Robert Prevost long before he became pope — and have the selfies to prove it. They are in Vatican City for Leo's inauguration.

Averting a financial crisis “will rank among most pressing issues for the new pontiff,” says Charles Gillespie, PhD, professor at Sacred Heart University in Connecticut.

It still may be hard to believe, but the new pope is from Chicago. In just a few days, those who consider Pope Leo XIV their own are headed to Rome for his installation ceremony. Six Augustinians from the Catholic Theological Union in Hyde Park,

The U.S.-born pope spent about a dozen years as a missionary in Peru and returned there later to serve as a bishop.

Pope Leo XIV took his first trip outside the Vatican on Saturday, heading about an hour's drive east of Rome for a visit to a Catholic shrine and stopping on the way back to pay respects at the tomb of his predecessor Francis.

Just days after making history as the first American Pope, Illinois native Pope Leo XIV is preparing for a reunion with his siblings in Rome, where his brother John Prevost will join him to celebrate this unprecedented moment for the Catholic Church and Chicago alike.

Speakers blasted “Born in the U.S.A. and ”American Pie" as six cardinal electors from the United States celebrated the first U.S. pope a day after Chicago-born Cardinal Robert Prevost became Pope Leo XIV.

Pope Leo XIV took his first trip outside the Vatican on Saturday, heading about an hour's drive east of Rome to the small Italian town of Genazzano to visit a shrine to the Virgin Mary. The new pontif

"War is never inevitable," the pope told them. "Weapons can and must be silenced, for they do not resolve problems but only increase them."

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Leo XIV has made peace with Jannik Sinner. The top-ranked tennis player visited the new pope on Wednesday, gave him a tennis racket and offered to play, during an off day for Sinner at the Italian Open.