Just days after making history as the first American Pope, Illinois native Pope Leo XIV is preparing for a reunion with his siblings in Rome, where his brother John Prevost will join him to celebrate this unprecedented moment for the Catholic Church and Chicago alike.

Pope Leo XIV took his first trip outside the Vatican on Saturday, heading about an hour's drive east of Rome to the small Italian town of Genazzano to visit a shrine to the Virgin Mary. The new pontif

While it is interesting and perhaps even a point of pride that the new Pope Leo XIV was born in the United States, most of the U.S.-based cardinals who participated in the conclave that elected him said nationality was not a factor.