Pope Leoâs brother has shared what the new pope enjoys doing in his free time â and itâs something no one saw coming.Following the death of Pope Francis, who passed away aged 88 on Easter Monday, a new pope was chosen by the conclave on Thursday.
The conclave elected 69-year-old Robert Francis Prevost â who will now be known as Pope Leo XIV â a prominent American Catholic leader, was born in Chicago, Illinois, on September 14, 1955.
He is the first US-born pope and the 267th pope.
While he will step into even greater responsibilities as the new head of the Catholic church, one might wonder what he does in his downtime to relax?Well, according to his brother, John Prevost, the new pontiffâs hobbies arenât that different from anyone elseâs.
The retired Catholic school principal revealed to NBC News: â First we do Wordle, because this is a regular thing OK, then we do Words With Friends. Itâs something to keep his mind off life in the real world.
âAnd then we talked about whatâs going on and I said, âWell, do you have your red socks?â That doesnât go over well all the time.
âAnd I said, âWell, are you ready for this? Did you watch the movie Conclave so you know how to behave?â And he had just finished watching the movie Conclave. So he knew how to behave.â
He added: âSo itâs that kind of stuff because I wanted to take his mind off of it. You know, laugh about something because this is now an awesome responsibility.â
People have been left gobsmacked at how mundane the popeâs off-hours are, and that he has a family at all.
They took to Reddit to write: âI may sound really dumb but this video made me realize that the Pope has family⊠Idk I just always thought of the Pope as one singular being in his lifeline lol. Okay my confession is over. Off to do my penance.â
Others added: âI literally canât wrap my mind around the Pope being American. He went to Villanova! He plays Wordle! I saw a tweet that was like, âthe Pope has probably been to Walmart.’â and: âThe Pope seems like just a regular guy. Thatâs kind of wild. Itâs so cool though!â
One commented: âSide note, can you imagine what the internal chats at Wordle and Words with Friends must be like after seeing this interview?â
Some joked: âwonder whatâs his wordle streak,â and: âThe new Pope has seen Best Picture nominee Conclave, this is incredible.â
Pope Leoâs brother also revealed that they had a pretty normal childhood until the future pontiff joined the seminary âright out of eighth gradeâ, but added that he love to get âbehind the wheelâ as a teenager when he was home for summer vacation.
John also revealed to CBS Chicago that his younger brother was destined to become pope as he often played a priest as a child.
The Prevost family also revealed that they found out the life-changing news at the same time as the rest of the world â when the decision was broadcast on television.
John revealed: â[My niece] screamed and I was sort of, âOh my gosh, this is for real. Is this happening?’â
Summarizing how he felt in the moment, he added: âShock. Disbelief. A whole lot of pride. A whole lot of, âis this for real? Now what are we gonna do?â That kind of stuff, because this is an awesome responsibility that we have to live up to, that he has to live up to.
âPeople are going to be watching him from now on closer than ever and maybe us too, the family.â
He alo revealed that he believes his brother will follow in the footsteps of Pope Francis, who also had a passion for helping the poor, underprivileged, and disenfranchized.