'Leo from Chicago': An intimate portrait of Leo XIV's American roots

Pope Leo XIV played, as a child, to say mass in his small house in suburban Dolton, Ill.: "Every day, we would go down to the basement, and he would have the ironing board set up with a tablecloth ready. We would have regular mass, and we didn’t consider it playing. He knew all the prayers—both in Latin and English."

His middle brother, John Prevost, recalls these days this way in the new documentary "Leo from Chicago," produced by Vatican Media. Both he and the eldest of the family, Louis, recount a childhood that was both typically American and typically Catholic: "We were American kids, and we ate American": hamburgers, steak... and on Fridays, fish. They rode bikes and played baseball, expect on Sundays.

The documentary also features less typical anecdotes, considered a sort of omens by those who tell them. Like that of the nun who, at school, said, "Robert Francis, you could be pope one day." She was greeted with laughter; he, it seems, wanted nothing to do with it.

The documentary chronicles Robert Francis Prevost's journey from a crib in a Dolton living room to the Vatican. His love of cars, his good grades in school and his role as student council president are all chapters in the life of the first American pope remembered by family, teachers, friends and neighbors.

You can watch the full documentary below: