Before Robert F. Prevost became Pope Leo XIV, he was apparently keeping a close eye on at least one major Illinois issue.
Documents obtained by WBEZ and the Chicago Sun-Times through a public records request show that in 2011 the Chicago-born pope sent his gratitude to then-Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn for abolishing the death penalty in Illinois.
The note was submitted through an online form on the Illinois governor’s website the same day Quinn signed the act into law on March 9, 2011.
“Dear Governor Quinn, THANK YOU for your courageous decision in signing into law the elimination of the death penalty,” the note reads. “I know it was a difficult decision, but I applaud your vision and your understanding of the very complex matter. You have my full support! Sincerely, Robert F. Prevost.”
Quinn, who was not aware of the note’s existence before being contacted for this story, was immediately surprised that the person who would eventually become the pope had written to him more than a decade earlier.
“Can you text me a copy of the letter?” Quinn said when first told of the letter. “I think I’ll frame it.”
The Holy See, the central governing body of the Catholic Church, did not immediately verify Pope Leo XIV wrote the note 14 years ago. And Pope Leo XIV has not responded to an email sent to the AOL account listed on the comment to the governor’s office. But the Robert F. Prevost who wrote the note also indicated on the message that he resided at the address of a home owned by Pope Leo XIV’s brother, John Prevost, in southwest suburban New Lenox.
What’s known about Pope Leo XIV’s politics
Prevost spent much of his career as a missionary and then a bishop based in Chiclayo, Peru. At the time Quinn did away with the Illinois’ death penalty, Prevost was serving as the international leader of the Augustinian religious order.
Since his election as the first U.S.-born pontiff, Prevost entered the international spotlight embracing his Chicago roots. He gave a livestreamed address to tens of thousands of fans June 14 at Rate Field, home to the Chicago White Sox.
Several long-standing Chicago and Illinois political leaders have said they have not met him and were not aware of his political leanings before he became pope. Reports have published Prevost’s Illinois voting record, showing he pulled Republican primary ballots in 2012, 2014 and 2016 while registered at his brother’s New Lenox address.
Prevost previously criticized Vice President JD Vance and President Donald Trump’s administration for their immigration policies from an X account that’s since been deleted.
His note to Quinn marks the first known example of Prevost publicly weighing in on a local — and highly charged — political debate in Illinois.
Catholic organizations in Illinois lobbied heavily for the death penalty ban and applauded its enactment. At the time lawmakers were debating the ban, a group of bishops including then-Cardinal Francis George of Chicago and Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield released a statement saying “society’s need to protect itself no longer requires capital punishment.”
In a statement released after the bill’s signing, the Catholic Conference of Illinois said the move “advances the development of a culture of life in our state.”
“No longer will there be a risk in Illinois that an innocent person will be convicted and sentenced to death,” the statement continued.
Why Pat Quinn ended the death penalty
The decision to sign the death penalty ban into law wasn’t easy for Quinn. He spent two months meeting with prosecutors, judges, victims and their families — as well as people on death row who were exonerated — to parse through an issue that he called at the time “a choice between life and death.”
He said he also pulled from the wisdom of religious leaders, including the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, who was archbishop of Chicago from 1982 until his death in 1996. Quinn, who was raised Catholic and attended Fenwick, a private Catholic high school in Oak Park, said he revered Bernardin, and shared similar views on the issue.
“There are other means of punishing violent, evil people who commit heinous crimes, other than the state terminating their life,” Quinn said during a news conference at the bill’s signing. “I did read the Bible, and I think that it’s important for all of us to reflect on those good words in both the Old and New Testament, and I have arrived at a decision I felt was according to my conscience.”
Quinn also commuted the sentences of all 15 people on Illinois death row at the time to natural life imprisonment without the possibility of parole or release.
Eight years earlier, then-Gov. George Ryan famously commuted the sentences of all 167 people on death row at the time to life terms. In 2000, Ryan had placed a moratorium on executions of people on death row, pending a state review of how the punishment was carried out. At that time, 12 people had been executed after the death penalty’s reinstatement in 1977. Quinn said he and Ryan didn’t agree on “much of anything,” except that issue.
“When I signed the bill to end the death penalty, you had pens,” Quinn said. “I saved one pen, I sent it to Gov. [James] Thompson, who was Ryan’s attorney at the time … and I asked Thompson to give Ryan the pen.”
Pat Quinn’s Catholic upbringing
Facing pressure from prosecutors and victims’ rights groups to reject the bill, Quinn said he followed his conscience.
In a recent interview, Quinn said much of his moral compass came from his Catholic education at Fenwick and guidance from priests at his church. Shortly before he abolished the death penalty, he said he read Bernardin’s book, “The Gift of Peace.”
Even though Quinn said he can’t recall a time he crossed paths with Prevost, he thinks of the new pope as a man of conscience.
“Just reading about this life … I know he will do a good job on behalf of all,” Quinn said. “I’ll try to [reach out to him] now.”
Following his move to eliminate Illinois’ death penalty, Quinn received several phone calls, letters and emails from supporters, including South Africa’s former Anglican archbishop and Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu, Sister Helen Prejean and actor Martin Sheen.
“But getting a letter or an email from the future pope, you can’t beat that. That’s for sure,” Quinn said.