Chicago-born Pope Leo XIV was hung up on by a customer service representative while trying to update his personal bank account from the Vatican.
The incident happened roughly two months after Pope Leo’s election in May 2025. The pontiff, born Robert Francis Prevost in Dolton, Illinois, called his U.S. bank to change the phone number and address on file. He identified himself as Robert Prevost and correctly answered all security questions.
According to the pope’s longtime friend Rev. Tom McCarthy, the bank employee insisted he would still need to appear in person at the branch. When Pope Leo explained he could not travel from the Vatican, he asked whether it would matter if he told her he was Pope Leo. The representative hung up anyway.
Father McCarthy, an Augustinian priest and longtime friend who first met Prevost in Chicago in the 1980s, recounted the story last week at a gathering of Catholics in Naperville, Illinois. He confirmed the details in an email to The New York Times. The account was later resolved after another priest with ties to the bank president stepped in to help.
The lighthearted anecdote has drawn widespread attention online, highlighting the everyday frustrations that can face even the leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics. It also reinforces Pope Leo’s reputation for remaining down-to-earth despite his historic role as the first American pope. Prevost grew up in working-class Chicago suburbs, served as a missionary bishop in Peru, and held senior Vatican positions before his election following the death of Pope Francis.
Father McCarthy quipped to the audience that the bank employee might one day be known as “the woman who hung up on the pope.”
The story has resonated as a reminder of the pope’s modest roots and the challenges of navigating ordinary tasks from the world’s smallest country.
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