Cardinal Robert Prevost, a Chicago-area native and former substitute teacher at St. Rita High School, has become the first American pope in the 2,000-year history of the Catholic Church.

Robert Prevost, a Chicago native with extensive Midwest ties and a graduate of the Catholic Theological Union, makes history as the first North American, Peruvian citizen and American citizen to be elected pope.

Prevost, a 69 member of the Augustinian religious order, took the name Leo XIV. He appeared on the loggia of St. Peter’s Square wearing the traditional red cape of the papacy — a cape that Pope Francis had eschewed on his election in 2013.