T he election of Robert Prevost as Pope Leo XIV took most of us by surprise. More than most, after spending 12 years in Rome with him as a superior of a religious community, and especially as a fellow classmate at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago from 1977 to 1982, the announcement of “ Robertus Franciscus Prevost ” from the logia of St. Peter’s Basilica seemed like something from a movie. I knew him as “Bob” and will always think of him this way. We studied together as seminarians and