Police investigate bomb threat at Chicago-area home of Pope Leo’s brother

A bomb threat targeting the Chicago-area home of Pope Leo XIV’s brother prompted an evacuation and police search, but investigators said they found no explosives or hazardous materials.

Media outlets, citing police, reported that the threat was made yesterday evening at the New Lenox, Illinois, home of John Prevost.

Prevost lives on the same street identified by police as the site of the incident. New Lenox police did not return a call seeking comment on the report.

The episode follows an attack by US President Donald Trump on Sunday against Pope Leo XIV, the first US pope, over the pontiff’s criticism of the war in Iran.

New Lenox police said officers received a report of a bomb threat at a private residence yesterday evening and cleared nearby homes while they conducted a search of the area.

“After careful examination, investigators determined that the threat was unsubstantiated and that no explosive devices or hazardous materials were present,” police said in a statement.

Authorities said the investigation remained active as they worked to determine where the false report originated.

Pope Leo heads the 1.4 billion-member church and has become an outspoken critic of the war.

Speaking in unusually forceful terms in Cameroon on Thursday, the pontiff rebuked leaders who spend billions on wars and said the world was “being ravaged by a handful of tyrants”.

Even as he criticised Pope Leo as too liberal and “weak on crime,” Mr Trump praised the pope’s brother Louis, of Florida, for backing Trump’s MAGA movement.

John Prevost is another of the pope’s older brothers.