Vatican News released a new documentary, Leo from Chicago, on November 10, marking six months since the election of Pope Leo XIV. The film traces the American roots of the new pontiff — born Robert Francis Prevost — and offers an intimate look at the formative years that shaped his pastoral heart long before he stepped onto the world stage.
The documentary, produced by the Dicastery for Communication in collaboration with the Archdiocese of Chicago and Apostolado El Sembrador Nueva Evangelización (ESNE), takes viewers back to the quiet neighborhoods of Dolton, Illinois, where young Robert grew up. Through family photos, parish scenes, and interviews with his brothers Louis and John, Leo from Chicago paints a grounded and human portrait of a future pope who found his vocation amid the ordinary rhythm of American Catholic life.
Prevost’s story unfolds across familiar Midwestern settings — local parishes, schools, and universities — where he first encountered the Augustinian community that would shape his spiritual path. Friends, classmates, and confreres recall a man marked by patience, humor, and a quiet conviction that service and learning must go hand in hand.
“He always had time to listen,” one former student says in the film, describing a teacher who would later become a bishop and cardinal before being called to Rome.
Follow-up of June documentary
The 50-minute documentary is part of a broader Vatican initiative to help the faithful and the public understand Pope Leo XIV’s journey in full.
It follows the 45-minute León de Perú, a documentary released in June that focused on his years as a missionary and religious superior in Peru, where he served the Augustinian order for nearly two decades.
Together, the two films form a kind of biographical diptych: one looking north to his roots in the United States, the other south to the place where his pastoral mission matured.
Leo from Chicago also underscores the universality of the Church by presenting Pope Leo’s life through three languages — English, Italian, and Spanish — mirroring his ability to move naturally across cultures. It’s a reminder that the papacy, though deeply Roman, is enriched by stories that begin far from the Vatican walls. In this case, the journey of a boy from suburban Chicago now resonates at the heart of global Catholicism.
The film’s creative team — journalists Deborah Castellano Lubov, Salvatore Cernuzio, and Felipe Herrera-Espaliat — spent months in the United States gathering testimonies and archival material. Under the editing of Jaime Vizcaíno Haro, the documentary balances personal storytelling with historical context, offering viewers a window into how the American experience has contributed to shaping Pope Leo XIV’s pastoral vision.
It premiered at 6:00 p.m. Rome time on the feast of Leo the Great, November 10. Leo from Chicago is available on the Vatican News YouTube channel and shared through major international outlets. For those curious about the human and spiritual journey behind the papal name, the film offers more than biography — it captures a sense of continuity between faith lived quietly in a parish pew and faith now exercised from the Chair of Peter.
