Destined to be dad: the brother says that Leo XIV always wanted to be a priest

When Robert Prevost was in the first degree, his neighbor told him that he would be the first American Pope, his brother told ABC News.

On Thursday, that prophecy came true, when Prevost, a 69 -year -old cardinal, was chosen to be the 267 pontiff, and the first of the United States.

Before being Pope Leo XIV, Prevost grew the youngest of three brothers in Dolton’s suburb of South Chicago.

He always wanted to be a priest, his older brother, John Prevost, told ABC News out of his home in Illinois on Thursday.

“He knew it immediately. I don’t think he questioned. I don’t think it’s thought of anything else,” said John Prevost.

When I was a child, Pope Leo XIV “played a priest,” said John Prevost. “The ironing table was the altar.”

The Pope is a fan of the white socks, his brother confirmed. “It’s a regular and current person,” he said.

Leo began to emerge as a favorite for the papacy in the days prior to the conclave, according to Reverend James Martin, a papal taxpayer of ABC News.

John Prevost said he spoke with his brother on Tuesday, before the cardinals entered the secret conclave, and told his younger brother that he also believed that he could be the first American Pope. At that time, his younger brother called him “meaningless” and “just speaking”, saying: “‘They will not choose an American Pope,” said John Prevost.

“I just didn’t believe it, or didn’t want to believe it,” said John Prevost.

John Prevost said he hopes his brother will follow the steps of the late Pope Francis as a voice for those deprived of his rights and the poor.

“I think they were two of a guy,” said John Prevost. “I think because both were in South America at the same time, in Peru and in Argentina, they had the same experiences in working with missions and working with the oppressed. So I think that is the experience from which they both come.”

Louis Prevost, the eldest of the three Premost brothers, felt under the weather and lying in bed at his home in Florida when the great moment arrived.

“My wife called me to tell me that there is white smoke from the chapel,” he said.

Louis Prevost said he tuned the live broadcast of the Vatican announcement.

“They began to read his name, and when he left: ‘bla, blah, blah, Roberto’, immediately knew, that’s Rob,” he said. “I was grateful to be in bed lying down, because I could have fallen.”

Louis Prevost said he got out of bed and began to “dance like an idiot.”

“It’s amazing,” he said. “I’m suddenly awake and I feel wonderful.”

He described his brother as “with his feet on the ground,” someone who has a good sense of humor and is “intelligent like a whip.” He loved his work as a missionary in Peru and being with people, and through his work with the Vatican has traveled the world, said Louis Prevost.

“I thought I had traveled in the Navy, but, my God, he left me speechless,” he said.

His brother assumed that the global experience may have highlighted the other cardinals to choose it Pope.

Louis Prevost said his brother seemed to always know his call, and how young of 4 or 5 years, the family knew that he was destined for great things in the Catholic Church. When his brothers played police and thieves, Leo “played priest” and distributed the sacred communion with Necco Wafers, said Louis Prevost.

“We used to make fun of him all the time, one day you will be the Pope,” he said. “The neighbors said the same. Sixty years later, here we are.”