(ZENIT News / Rome, 07.01.2025).- Newly surfaced records reveal that on March 9, 2011, the same day Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed a landmark law abolishing the death penalty, a message of support arrived in the governor’s inbox from a man listed simply as Robert F. Prevost. Submitted through the governor’s official website, the message thanked Quinn for his “courageous decision,” commending his “vision and understanding” on what it called a “very complex matter.”
At the time, Prevost was not yet a bishop, let alone a pope. He was serving as the global head of the Augustinian order, having spent years as a missionary and church leader in Peru. His ties to Illinois, however, remained rooted: he had been born in Chicago and, according to the message, was staying at a residence owned by his brother in New Lenox, a suburb of the city.
The message went unnoticed until WBEZ and the Chicago Sun-Times unearthed it through a public records request. Its significance, however, became clear in hindsight. It now stands as the earliest known instance of Prevost weighing in on a contentious American political debate—long before the world would know him as the first U.S.-born pope.
When informed of the message, Quinn, who said he had never heard of Prevost at the time, was stunned. “Can you text me a copy of the letter?” he reportedly asked. “I think I’ll frame it.”
The Vatican has not confirmed the authenticity of the message, and Pope Leo XIV has not responded to an inquiry sent to the AOL address associated with the submission. Yet the connection seems credible, especially given the address listed in the message and Prevost’s well-documented presence in Illinois at the time.
The abolition of the death penalty in Illinois was not a quiet affair. The move followed a decade of mounting scrutiny after multiple exonerations of death row inmates, including a sweeping clemency action by former Governor George Ryan in 2003. When Quinn took action in 2011, it came after months of consultation with prosecutors, judges, victims’ families—and men who had narrowly escaped execution.
“I followed my conscience,” Quinn said then, citing biblical reflections and the writings of the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago, a vocal opponent of capital punishment and a spiritual influence on the governor. At the time, Quinn, a lifelong Catholic, described the death penalty as incompatible with the values of a just and moral society.
Prevost’s message to Quinn echoed those convictions, even if it stayed under the radar for more than a decade. For many who knew Prevost only as a theologian and canon lawyer, the note adds texture to his evolving public identity as a moral leader unafraid to weigh in—albeit quietly—on issues of life, justice, and human dignity.
The Catholic Church in Illinois was actively lobbying for the abolition of the death penalty in 2011. Then-Cardinal Francis George and Bishop Thomas Paprocki joined in a rare joint statement calling the death penalty unnecessary in modern society. After the bill passed, the Illinois Catholic Conference heralded it as a step toward a “culture of life.”
But Quinn faced fierce resistance, particularly from prosecutors and victims’ rights groups who saw the law as soft on crime. He ultimately commuted the sentences of all 15 people then on death row, converting them to life without parole.
“I thought about Bernardin, I read Scripture,” Quinn said in a recent interview, recalling the moral pressure he felt. He also re-read Bernardin’s The Gift of Peace, which he described as influential in reaching his decision.
And now, over a decade later, it turns out that among the chorus of voices encouraging him was a future pope.
Quinn has received praise for his action from activists like Sister Helen Prejean and Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu. But none, he said, carries quite the same weight as an anonymous message from a Chicago-born Augustinian who would one day lead the global Catholic Church.
“To hear that the future Pope Leo XIV stood with me that day,” Quinn said, “it’s humbling. He’s a man of conscience. I’ll try to get in touch with him now.”
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