On a late summer day in 1981, the future pope of the Catholic Church was on his way to Detroit, deep in prayer.

When he arrived, the young Robert Prevost would kneel before the altar at St. Clare of Montefalco Parish in Grosse Pointe Park, where his life of ordained ministry — a ministry that would lead him from Chicago to Peru and eventually to the Chair of St. Peter in Rome — was about to begin.

Normally, transitional deacon ordinations for the Midwest Augustinians were celebrated in Chicago, but for various reasons, the ordination that year was to take place in southeast Michigan, at one of three Augustinian-run parishes in the Archdiocese of Detroit at the time.

And so, on Sept. 10, 1981, the future Pope Leo XIV entered holy orders right here in southeast Michigan.

detroitcatholic.com

Another Detroit tie: Pope Leo XIV was ordained a deacon in Grosse Pointe Park - Detroit Catholic

St. Clare of Montefalco parishioners say it's a point of holy pride that Chicago-born pope visited, was ordained at their parish