The story behind the viral photo of Pope Leo’s identity
A photo of a young Pope Leo XIV (Robert Prevost) holding a white cloth with drawings has gone viral, showing how he once portrayed his identity. The drawings depict an American flag, Chicago’s Sears Tower, the Chicago White Sox, the Augustinian Order symbol, and a Christmas tree, reflecting his American upbringing, Chicago roots, and vocation. NPR hosts Scott Detrow and Daniel Burke are researching for a forthcoming book on Leo XIV and shared the image as part of the pre‑launch promotion. The image provides insight into how the future Pope views himself and has sparked discussion and related coverage, such as a mural and theme night by the Chicago White Sox.
17 days ago
A viral photograph of Pope Leo XIV as a young Augustinian priest shows him presenting a cloth painted with symbols of his identity: the American flag, Chicago’s Sears Tower, the Chicago White Sox, the Augustinian emblem, and a Christmas tree. The image was recently highlighted by NPR journalists researching a forthcoming biography of the pope. 1
The image was shared by Scott Detrow, co-host of NPR’s All Things Considered, who is writing American Pope: Leo XIV’s Road from the South Side of Chicago to Vatican City with NPR religion editor Daniel Burke. The book is scheduled for release on October 6, 2026. 1
The photograph originated in an exercise undertaken while Robert Prevost was prior general of the Augustinian Order. Participants were asked to create paintings representing their identities, and Prevost used the cloth to depict elements of his personal background, religious vocation, and interests. 1
The Augustinian symbol represents the religious order to which Prevost belonged and through which he pursued his vocation. It is presented as the clearest expression of his identity as a priest and religious. 1
The American flag reflects Prevost’s upbringing in the United States and his Midwestern roots. Before becoming pope, he was known as Robert “Bob” Prevost, a native of the Chicago area. 1
The drawing labeled “CW Sox” refers to the Chicago White Sox, the baseball team Prevost supports. He attended two of the team’s 2005 World Series games, and the club has since honored him with a mural and a themed event following his election as pope. 1
The Sears Tower—now officially called Willis Tower—was another distinctly Chicago reference. The building was the world’s tallest from 1973 to 1998 and remains Chicago’s tallest structure, making it a prominent symbol of the city. 1
Construction of the tower was completed when Prevost was 17. The article presents his decision to include it as an indication of the importance of Chicago in his personal identity. 1
The Christmas tree represents Prevost’s appreciation for Christmas as a religious and family-centered celebration. The article links this early image to his later attention to Christmas traditions as pope. 1
During his first Christmas as pope, Leo XIV revived the practice of celebrating Christmas Day Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, a tradition that had not been observed by a pope since 1994. In his homily, he described Christmas as a celebration of music, song, and joy. 1
The photograph offers an early, personal portrait of Leo XIV before his rise to the papacy. Its imagery combines his American and Chicago origins, his lifelong connection to the Augustinians, his enthusiasm for baseball, and his religious attachment to Christmas. 1
Explore how American identity shapes papal self‑representation
American identity shapes papal self-representation in two distinct ways: it supplies a rhetorical vocabulary—liberty, immigration, pluralism, unity, and national ideals—and it becomes a platform from which the pope reinterprets those ideals through Catholic theology. This is especially explicit in Leo XIV, who can speak not merely to America but as an American.
John Paul II and Benedict XVI presented themselves as European popes addressing the United States from outside its national experience. John Paul II interpreted America through its history of immigration and cultural synthesis: “E pluribus unum” represented the transformation of many peoples into a genuinely new unity. His papal persona was therefore that of a foreign observer who recognized America’s promise while reminding it of its unfinished moral obligations—especially solidarity with the poor and the overcoming of discrimination.
Benedict XVI adopted a more explicitly theological and institutional role. He praised the American combination of religious, ethical, and political principles as a form of “healthy secularism,” in which religion is neither imposed nor excluded but contributes to public life. His self-representation was that of a European intellectual assessing the United States as a significant experiment in religious freedom, democratic order, and moral responsibility.
Leo XIV introduces a different dynamic. Describing himself as “a son of this great country,” he places his American biography within the papal office rather than suspending it. His national identity becomes part of his public credibility: he speaks with the authority of Peter, but also with the memory of an American childhood, civic tradition, and national inheritance.
The papal rhetoric does not treat “American” as an ethnic identity. John Paul II depicts the nation as continually receiving new peoples who bring distinct histories and gifts into a common project. America’s identity is thus performative: it is created by people who “throw their destinies together” and write a shared history.
This allows the pope to represent himself as a universal pastor addressing a nation that claims universality in miniature. John Paul II calls the United States a society containing people of different races, religions, and social conditions, and therefore a kind of microcosm of the world community. The American ideal becomes an analogy for the Church’s catholicity: unity does not require cultural uniformity.
Leo XIV develops this identification through the language of inheritance. He connects the nation’s founding principles—equality, liberty, and rights—to natural law and ultimately to the biblical doctrine that human beings are created in God’s image. In doing so, he presents himself as both guardian and interpreter of America’s founding claims. The pope does not simply endorse the national tradition; he argues that its deepest ideals depend on a theological account of human dignity.
A recurring feature of this self-representation is the appropriation of American religious language. John Paul II repeatedly invokes “one nation, under God,” but he treats it as a moral vocation rather than a declaration of national self-sufficiency. America’s blessings generate duties: sharing, loving, serving, and pursuing justice for the disadvantaged.
Leo XIV similarly places the American anniversary within a Eucharistic pilgrimage whose motto is “One Nation Under God.” Yet he shifts attention from patriotic memory to Christ’s presence. The nation’s history is valuable insofar as it leads toward renewal, unity, healing, and the “heavenly” homeland. His papal identity is consequently not that of a civil chaplain blessing national power. It is that of a pastor redirecting national symbolism toward conversion and communion.
This distinction is crucial. The pope can affirm American ideals while judging the nation by them. Leo XIV praises liberty but insists that liberty cannot be separated from the right to life and the protection of vulnerable persons. American identity thus gives him a language of affirmation, but Catholic teaching supplies the criteria of evaluation.
Benedict XVI’s self-presentation in the United States centered strongly on religious freedom. He described Americans as willing to bring biblical moral arguments into public discourse and praised the country’s respect for religious liberty as a major reason immigrants were drawn to it. Here Benedict presents the pope as a defender of the public legitimacy of faith within a pluralistic democracy.
This approach reflects the distinctive American question: how can religion remain socially influential without becoming coercive? Benedict’s answer is not secular exclusion but a public order in which the state protects freedom while religious communities contribute to the common good. He portrays the Church as both participant and “critical conscience,” free to evangelize and to challenge national policy.
Leo XIV inherits this framework but speaks with greater biographical immediacy. His American identity allows him to claim the nation’s ideals personally, while his papal office enables him to place them within a universal moral horizon. The result is a form of self-representation that combines civic belonging with ecclesial transcendence.
American identity can strengthen papal communication, but it also creates a potential tension. The pope must be recognizably American without becoming the representative of American nationalism. The supplied texts show this tension being managed in three ways.
First, American history is praised but also criticized. John Paul II acknowledges discrimination and unfinished reconciliation. Leo XIV calls the realization of liberty and justice an ongoing “work in progress,” not a completed achievement.
Second, national prosperity is subordinated to service. Benedict praises American creativity, generosity, and humanitarian action, especially through Catholic institutions. John Paul II converts gratitude for national blessings into responsibility toward the less favored.
Third, the pope’s office is defined by the cross and responsibility for the universal Church, not by personal nationality. The papacy is described as a burden of obedience and care for all the Churches. Even an American pope therefore remains more than an American public figure: his identity is ultimately shaped by representing Christ and serving the Church throughout the world.
American identity shapes papal self-representation by offering a powerful set of images—immigrant unity, religious liberty, constitutional ideals, national purpose, and “one nation under God.” John Paul II used these images as an external interpreter of America’s promise and failures. Benedict XVI used them to defend the constructive public role of religion within a pluralist democracy. Leo XIV, as an American, adds an insider’s voice: he presents the nation’s ideals as part of his own inheritance while subjecting them to the demands of human dignity, the Gospel, and the universal mission of the papacy.
The result is not a nationalist papacy but an American-inflected universalism: America becomes credible when its ideals are transformed into justice, protection of life, religious freedom, solidarity, and service.