'American Pope' traces Leo's journey from Chicago to the Vatican

Pope Leo XIV made history as the first American to lead the Catholic Church. But the path that brought him there stretched from Chicago’s South Side to decades of missionary work in Peru and ultimately to the highest ranks of the Vatican. "American Pope" traces that journey and offers a fuller portrait of the man behind the papacy. Geoff Bennett spoke with authors Scott Detrow and Daniel Burke.

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When Robert Prevost stepped onto the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica last year as Pope Leo XIV, he made history as the first American to lead the Catholic Church.

The new book "American Pope" traces that unlikely journey and offers a fuller portrait of the man behind the papacy. Its authors are Scott Detrow, host of NPR's "All Things Considered," and Daniel Burke, NPR senior editor of religion and spirituality.

Daniel Burke, Co-Author, "American Pope: Leo XIV's Road from the South Side of Chicago to Vatican City": Great to be here.

And, Scott, you were in Rome during the conclave when Robert Prevost's name first came up, and you had actually circled his name in your notebook at the time. What did you know about him then and what did you realize you didn't know about him when he became the pope?

Not that much at first, and I think I wasn't alone. Several people in Rome were saying, like, you got to think about Robert Prevost, and then you would say, the American? That's a nonstarter.

And that seemed to just double down on this given in Catholic Church history that the United States for the last couple hundred years is the most powerful country in the world. You wouldn't want to make a pope an American.

And he subtly -- because I think if he had done it too bluntly, it would have backfired. He's kind of subtly pointing to his allies who he knows are going to choose the next pope and saying, this is the guy that I'm entrusting. This is the guy who you should really consider.

And Prevost, Pope Leo, grew up, obviously, in Chicago, attended Villanova, in many ways purely American story, but so much of his adult life was informed by living in Peru.

But there was a car accident, and they needed a canon lawyer very quickly. And so his order, the Order of Saint Augustine, sent him down there. He didn't quite take to it first. He gets to Chulucanas, which is in northwest Peru, where El Nino had just swept through. houses were dissolved in mud.

What does that tell us about the difference between those two men and where Leo might ultimately take the church?