A ‘commonsense person’: Philadelphia reverend and friend of Pope Leo XIV suggests church’s new leader may be sympathetic on immigration

The Catholic Church has its first U.S.-born pope in Robert Prevost, or Pope Leo XIV.

In a way, the Philadelphia region has its first pope, too.

Though his roots are in Chicago, Prevost — who was elected to the church’s holiest post Thursday — began his pathway to the papacy at Villanova University, where he earned a mathematics degree in 1977 before rising in the church’s ranks abroad.

Not long after Prevost’s debut on the Vatican balcony, a former Villanova classmate and longtime friend, the Rev. Paul Galetto, spoke with The Inquirer about the character and esteem of the newest leader of the world’s largest church.

Prevost is a “very commonsense person,” Galetto said, a man who likely developed a sympathy for immigration issues during his service in South America and, in recent years, maintained a close working relationship with the late Pope Francis.

“He’s just a really good person, he’s a prayerful person,” said Galetto, pastor of St. Paul Parish in South Philadelphia. “He has a great sense of humor.”

Of Prevost’s decision to choose Leo as his papal name, Galetto said the choice evokes Pope Leo XIII — a 19th-century champion of working people and social justice — and marks a continuation of Francis’ legacy.

“Having been a bishop in Peru and South America, I’m sure [Prevost’s] focus is on immigration and the movement of peoples,” Galetto said.

Galetto met Prevost in the mid-1970s when the two men were studying to be members of the Augustinians, an order within the Catholic Church that values living in harmony and in service to others.

Galetto and Prevost overlapped briefly at Villanova, the private Augustinian Catholic college on the Main Line, and later studied together in Rome in the early 1980s while Prevost earned a canon law degree from the Pontifical College of St. Thomas Aquinas.

Prevost kept close ties to the Vatican, Galetto said; by his estimation, it was Prevost’s proximity to Francis that ultimately played a role in his selection.

“He and Francis were very close,” Galetto said. “The last couple years, they would have lunch together every Saturday. That’s when they made decisions about who would be the bishops.”

Prevost’s role beginning in 2023 as both a cardinal and a prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops — a top administrative unit within the church — meant the future pope likely came into contact with high-ranking members who vote in papal elections, according to Galetto.

“He probably knew most of them,” Galetto said.

On the significance of having a U.S.-born pope, Galetto was quick to point out that Prevost also has Peruvian citizenship, speaks Spanish, and in the 1980s and 1990s held a variety of church positions in South America. In 2023, Francis called on Prevost to lead the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.

Galetto suggested that if Prevost indeed champions the causes of immigrants during his papacy, that sentiment may clash with policies promoted by another prominent American: President Donald Trump.

There is some evidence to suggest a rift; in February, a verified X account linked to Prevost reposted an article published in the National Catholic Reporter with the headline: “JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for others.”

“It is such an honor to realize that he is the first American Pope,” Trump wrote on Truth Social shortly after the church’s announcement Thursday.

“It’ll be interesting, since the current administration is so vocal about immigration,” Galetto said. “I’m sure that the cardinals who chose him knew that was going to be a place where the tires and the road meet.”