Fr. Thomas Nairn, OFM, was sipping lemonade in a cafe in Assisi, Italy, on a break during a mission trip with SSM Health leaders, watching a livestream on a colleague's phone. It was May 8. The chimney on the top of the Sistine Chapel had plumed white smoke, signaling that there was a new pope. Now, it was time to hear the words "Habemus papam," Latin for "We have a pope."
Fr. Nairn and his colleague, SSM Health Vice President of Mission and Ethics Michael Miller Jr., peered at the screen. When they heard the name Roberto, Fr. Nairn could only remember two Robertos at the conclave: Cardinal Robert Sarah of Guinea, and his former student, who he knew as Bob Prevost.
"And so when they said Prevost, honestly, I grabbed the phone from his hands," Fr. Nairn said. "I couldn't believe it."
He was in "absolute shock" for several minutes, barely able to talk.
Fr. Nairn, 77, was once a teacher at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. The man who is now Pope Leo XIV earned his master in divinity there in 1982, a year before he was ordained. Fr. Nairn taught the future pope in at least one course, likely either sexual ethics or medical ethics, or maybe both.
"I threw all those records away when I left CTU, knowing I would never, ever have recourse to them again," he said. "Ha, ha, ha, so much for that."
Fr. Nairn taught at CTU from 1980 until 2008, when he became the senior director of ethics and theology at CHA. He served there until he was elected provincial minister of the Sacred Heart Province of Franciscans in 2017, a position he held until 2023. He now serves on the SSM Health board and on SSM Health Ministries, the sponsoring body for preserving SSM Health's Roman Catholic identity.
He lives in Chicago, where the excitement for the locally born pontiff is palpable.
"You know, sure, he's one of us, especially in Chicago," Fr. Nairn said, pointing out the Chicago Sun-Times' headline, "DA POPE!" announcing the big news. "But what I do hope is that things will settle down, and that the excitement over his being American from Chicago will turn to excitement over the things he says. Not to get political, but I do think our country needs to hear some of the stuff he says."
Fr. Nairn said he hasn't had regular contact with his former student, but they met up two or three times over the years. Once, while the future pontiff served as superior general of the Augustinians, Fr. Nairn was at a meeting in Rome and popped into his office near St. Peter's Square. The two caught up on each other's lives and reminisced about old times.
"If you told me when I was a faculty member that he'd become pope, I would have definitely kept (more) in touch," Fr. Nairn joked.
A thoughtful, smart, humorous student
Holding up a photo of Pope Leo from his time at CTU that shows a younger, slightly thinner man with a moustache, a dark head of hair curled around his ears, Fr. Nairn said that's how he remembers him. "He was one of those students I have not forgotten," he said.
Fr. Nairn met several Augustinians during his time at CTU. Pope Leo and one of his classmates, Robert Dodaro, stand out most. Dodaro is now an Augustinian academic and priest. "They were both smart as whips," Fr. Nairn said.
He remembers the future pope as being a "little shy," but engaged in different activities at the school. He also remembers him being thoughtful, "a very nice guy," and "an enjoyable person to be around. He had a nice sense of humor. He liked to use it often."
Fr. Nairn believes, based on his writings and speeches, that Pope Leo was influenced by his time at CTU. The school has always emphasized social justice issues, and so have the Augustinians and the Franciscans.
"What's interesting, and I think you've seen it already in some of his first thoughts, but what an awful lot of people today are calling 'woke' has been a part of both the Augustinian tradition and the Franciscan tradition for 800 years," he said. "So in a lot of ways, he is simply stating what the medieval tradition has always been."
Fr. Nairn says he believes the new pope will visit the United States, but it may not be a priority. The Catholics of the United States represent just 4% of the Catholic Church, and the pope spent much of his adult life as a missionary and church leader in Peru, he pointed out.
Meanwhile, Fr. Nairn is eager to read and hear more from Pope Leo. "I hope he'll have a long reign, and if that's the case, he's probably going to be the last pope I'm going to see," Fr. Nairn said. "But I honestly hope and believe that his time as pope will be beneficial to the church and beneficial to the church in the United States."