From left to right: Karol Wojtyla Sr., Joseph Ratzinger Sr., Mario Jose Bergoglio, Louis Marius Prevost. | Credit: Public domain; courtesy of Ignatius Press; courtesy of The Society of Jesus Argentina; fair use
The last four popes of the Catholic Church — John Paul II, Benedict XVI, Francis, and our new pope, Leo XIV — had hardworking fathers who instilled in each of their sons important traits and values, many of which can be seen in the way they lived out their priesthoods and carried out their papacies.
Here’s a look at the dads behind the last four Holy Fathers:
Pope Leo XIV’s father: Louis Marius Prevost
Louis Marius Prevost was born in Chicago on July 28, 1920, and was of Italian and French descent. Soon after graduating from college, he served in the Navy during World War II and in November 1943 became the executive officer of a tank landing ship. Prevost also participated in the D-Day landings in Normandy on June 6, 1944, as part of Operation Overlord. He spent 15 months overseas and attained the rank of lieutenant junior grade before the war finally ended.
After coming home, Prevost became the superintendent of Brookwood School District 167, an elementary school district in Glenwood, Illinois. In 1949 he married Mildred Agnes Martinez, another Chicagoan and a school librarian. Prevost died on Nov. 8, 1997, at the age of 77 from colon cancer and atherosclerotic heart disease.
According to the New York Times, in a 2024 interview on Italian television, the future pope recalled a time where he confided in his father about leaving the junior seminary he was attending to get married and have a family.
“Maybe it would be better I leave this life and get married; I want to have children, a normal life,” then-Cardinal Prevost recalled saying to his father at the time.
His father responded by telling him that “the intimacy between him and my mom” was important, but so was the intimacy between a priest and the love of God.
“There’s something to listen to here,” the future pope recalled thinking.
Pope Francis’ father: Mario Jose Bergoglio
Mario Jose Bergoglio was born on April 2, 1908, in Turin, Italy. In 1929, he and his family emigrated from Italy to Argentina to flee from the fascist rule of Benito Mussolini. In Argentina, he worked as an accountant and was employed by the Argentine railways, a stable and respected position at the time. He married Regina María Sívori in 1935 and they had five children — the eldest being the future Pope Francis. Mario Jose Bergoglio died at the age of 51 in 1959.
The Bergoglio family lived in a working-class area of Buenos Aires where the senior Bergoglio’s line of work undoubtedly shaped his own view of fatherhood and family life. Although the late pope did not say much publicly about his relationship with his own father, he often spoke about the importance of fathers and the need for them to be present in their children’s lives, exhorting them to be patient and forgiving and to correct their children without humiliating them. Francis often cited St. Joseph as a role model for all fathers.
Pope Benedict XVI’s father: Joseph Ratzinger Sr.
Joseph Ratzinger Sr. was born on March 6, 1877, in Winzer, Germany. Beginning in 1902, he worked as a policeman. In 1920, at the age of 43, he married Maria Peintner. Joseph Alois Ratzinger, who grew up to become Pope Benedict XVI, was the third and youngest child in the family.
Ratzinger Sr. was a devout Catholic and strongly opposed the Nazi regime. He often refused to obey their orders to persecute opponents and as a result was harassed by the Nazi hierarchy. In order to avoid sanctions, he frequently had to change posts. On Aug. 25, 1959, he died at the age of 82.
During the World Meeting of Families in 2012, Pope Benedict spoke about memories he had of his father and his family growing up.
“The most important moment for our family was always Sunday, but Sunday really began on Saturday afternoon,” he recalled. “My father would read out the Sunday readings from a book that was very popular in Germany at that time, which also included explanations of the texts. That is how we began our Sunday, entering into the liturgy in an atmosphere of joy.”
Pope John Paul II’s father: Karol Wojtyla Sr.
Karol Wojtyla Sr. was born on July 18, 1879, in Bielsko-Biała, Poland. He was a tailor by trade but in 1900 was called up for the Astro-Hungarian Army in which he spent a total of 28 years. After Poland regained its independence, he was admitted to the Polish Army where he served as a lieutenant until he retired in 1928.
Wojtyla Sr. married Emilia Kaczorowska and together they had three children — Edmund, Olga (who died in infancy), and Karol, who would later become Pope John Paul II. In 1929, Emilia died due to heart and kidney problems and three years later Edmund died from scarlet fever. This left Wojtyla Sr. to care for his son Karol on his own. In 1938, he and Karol moved to Kraków so that the boy could attend Jagiellonian University. Wojtyla Sr. died on Feb. 18, 1941, at the age of 61.
Pope John Paul II frequently spoke about his father’s faith and how it inspired his vocation to the priesthood.
The Polish pope once said of his father: “Day after day I was able to observe the austere way in which he lived. By profession he was a soldier and, after my mother’s death, his life became one of constant prayer. Sometimes I would wake up during the night and find my father on his knees, just as I would always see him kneeling in the parish church. We never spoke about a vocation to the priesthood, but his example was in a way my first seminary, a kind of domestic seminary.”
By Francesca Pollio Fenton
This story was originally published on June 15, 2025 by The Catholic News Agency.
