On Thursday, Robert Francis Prevost was introduced to the world as Pope Leo XIV.
But as recently as last week, he was a low-profile cardinal just dining out with a friend in Rome.
The friend, the Rev. Art Purcaro, an assistant vice president and adjunct professor at Villanova University, had traveled to Italy to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his ordination as a priest. He planned to have dinner with his family at Sor’Eva, a traditional Roman restaurant on the Tiber, not far from Vatican City. And he wanted his good friend Cardinal Prevost, known to him simply as Bob, to join.
The cardinal was unable to attend dinner because of the Novemdiales, the nine days of mourning and Masses that were being held in honor of Pope Francis, who died on April 21.
But then as dinner was wrapping up, Father Purcaro recalled, in walked Bob. He held a black umbrella as he battled a rainy evening outside.
“This is the type of person Bob Prevost is,” Father Purcaro said in a phone interview on Thursday. “He just popped in.”
The two priests have known each other for decades. They worked together in Peru, and later spent time together working in Rome. Father Purcaro eventually returned to Villanova — the same school that the pope attended as an undergraduate.
Father Purcaro described the new pope as an unambitious person, both reserved and prayerful.
“Some people would stress the reserved aspect of his personality, but that does not get across who Bob is,” he said.
“Bob cares very much about people, especially those who have been left out,” he added, noting that came through in their work in Peru.
He praised his friend’s willingness “to leave behind any personal ambition, his family, his abilities, to put them to the service of others, to go to a foreign nation, to become a bishop in a foreign country and to become a Peruvian citizen so he could serve as one for the people.”
Another longtime friend, the Rev. Robert Hagan, said that Robert Prevost was his mentor and superior when he was studying to become a priest in Racine, Wis., in the late 1990s.
They watched Chicago Bulls games together, and over the years checked in about the success of the men’s basketball team at Villanova, which they both attended.
“He had a twinkle in his eye, a serenity in his face. He’s a man who is centered. He wasn’t about the drama. He was calm,” said Father Hagan, who is now prior provincial in charge of the St. Augustinian order in the Philadelphia area.
Hours after the new pope was announced, Father Hagan still had trouble keeping his friend’s new name straight. “I think of him as Bob,” he said, adding that he was trying to retrain himself. “When he appeared on that balcony, it was as if a family member appeared.”
Interest in Pope Leo XIV, and in the people who knew him earlier in his life has been intense. A few hours after the pope was announced, Father Hagan said he received 351 texts and 400 emails about the news.
But he never saw a careerist plotting an ascent to power.
“The papacy is certainly not something that I could ever see Bob Prevost aspire to,” Father Hagan said. “I think he was just doing what he felt God was calling him to do.”
Sarah Mervosh covers education for The Times, focusing on K-12 schools.
Christopher Maag is a reporter covering the New York City region for The Times.
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