Pope Leo XIVs neighbors predicted he would become first American pontiff when he was in kindergarten

Pope Leo XIV’s childhood neighbors in suburban Chicago had predicted when he was just a small boy that he would become the first American pontiff, his brother said.“The interesting thing is way back when he was in kindergarten or first grade, there was a parent, a mom, across the street — one across the street that way and another down the street,” the newly-elected pope’s older brother, John Prevost, told WGN9 on Thursday.“Both of them said he would be the first American Pope — at that age.”Prevost divulged the wild prediction soon after his sibling was elected as the Catholic Church’s 267th pontiff — making the Chicago-born missionary the first ever US pope.“She sensed that at 6 years old,” he said in a separate interview with the Associated Press.“How she did that, who knows.It took this long, but here he is, first American pope.”Prevost, for his part, said he always knew his brother — who was then Robert Prevost — was going to be a priest, noting that he left for seminary school after graduating eighth grade.Now that he is the church’s leader, Prevost said he expects his sibling to be a “second Pope Francis.”“He’s not going to be real far left and he’s not going to be real far right,” he said.“Kind of right down the middle.”“It’s quite an honor; it’s quite a once in a lifetime,” he added of his brother’s election.“But I think it’s quite a responsibility and I think it’s going to lead to bigger and better things, but I think people are going to watch him very closely to see what he’s doing.”With Post wires...