On the steps of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, Pope Leo XIV met last week with some of his eighth grade classmates from St. Mary of the Assumption lower school in south Chicago, where he grew up.
Of the 82 eighth graders with whom he attended St. Mary’s in 1969, 10 greeted him after the general audience on March 18, exchanging laughs, gifts, and warm handshakes.
During the meeting, his former classmates gave him a photograph of the class of 1969, which he held up as he posed for another group shot more than 50 years later.
Jerome Clemens pointed out the young Robert Prevost standing among his classmates to the L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper: “Here he is, our friend, the Pope,” showing the back of the photo with Prevost’s old autograph and his new one, which he signed, “Leo XIV.”
Another former classmate, Sherry Stone (née Blue), dropped a sign she held that read “God bless you Pope Leo” when the Pope approached her.
“Sorry! I’m nervous!” she said, laughing, as he shook her hand.
Last spring, Stone told the Lansing Journal: “When he was in the conclave, I thought, ‘Could it be him? Could Bob be the
