When white smoke rose above the Vatican on May 8, 2025, announcing the election of the first American pope, NPR’s Scott Detrow and Daniel Burke were among the journalists trying to understand who Robert Prevost was — and how he had become Pope Leo XIV.

“We were so shocked,” Detrow recalled. A brief delay in the broadcast gave him a few seconds to process the news before it went out over the air.

Prevost had been mentioned as a possible contender in the days before the conclave, prompting the journalists to begin researching his background. Those initial questions eventually became the foundation for their new book, American Pope, a biography tracing Prevost’s path from Chicago to Peru and, ultimately, the Vatican.

For Burke, one of the most revealing parts of Prevost’s life was his two decades of ministry in Peru, where he served as a priest and later as a bishop.

“He said this was the most important part of his ministry of his public life and so we thought we absolutely need to go there we need to follow in his footsteps and so we we did,” Burke said. “It was fascinating to walk through all of these different periods of his life and find out what was was remarkable is how consistent he was and how consistent his personality was across those different times.”

One formative experience came early in his ministry, when Prevost worked with Sister Therese DelGenio to help people struggling with alcoholism and their families in Chicago. The work required listening to people in difficult circumstances rather than leading with religious instruction.

Delgenio’s advice, as Burke recounted it, was simple: “Don’t talk about God, act like God. Be present, be compassionate, listen.”

Detrow said that lesson helps explain Prevost’s approach to ministry in the years that followed, including his work in some of Peru’s poorest communities.

There, Prevost’s responsibilities extended beyond traditional church leadership.

“It’s kind of a hands-on leadership that he develops due to the circumstances that he finds himself in,” Detrow said, describing accounts of him climbing a palm tree to gather branches for Palm Sunday, repairing a car, and delivering food to communities affected by flooding.