Bank Teller Hangs Up on Pope Leo, Thought Call Was a ‘Prank’

Pope Leo XIV was hung up on after a bank employee thought she was the target of a prank call.

Robert Francis Prevost was trying to change his on-file address and phone number with his Chicago bank. He’d just made a big move two months prior– setting up residence in the Vatican as the newly elected pope. Pope Leo told his brother John Prevost about his bank-related problem on their daily phone call.

“I said, ‘Okay, I’ll get the number, the bank, and we’ll call the bank,'” said John in retelling the moment to CNN’s Erin Burnett on Wednesday’s OutFront.

The story of what happened next went viral after Pope Leo’s friend, Rev. Tom McCarthy, told a gathering of Catholics in Naperville, Illinois, about the pontiff’s customer service experience.

Once on with the bank teller, the man who identified himself as Robert Prevost explained that he had recently moved and needed to change his information.

“She said, ‘Okay, what’s the bank account number?'” John said to Burnett. “He gave it to her. ‘What is your Social Security number?’ He gave it to her. ‘What was your formal address?’ He gave it to her. There were about four or five different questions. He gave them all to her.”

According to McCarthy, the teller then told Pope Leo that he would need to come to the Chicago bank in person to finalize the process. The pope claimed he could not, before attempting to explain why. In John’s telling, it was he who told the bank employee about the special circumstances at the other end of the line.

“It went on so long, I said, ‘You know, ma’am, it might be helpful for you to know you’re talking to my brother who’s in Rome right now,'” said John. “‘You’re speaking with the pope.'”

In both tellings, the result was the same.

“She said, ‘Oh, really?’ And hung up,” said John. “And that was the end of the call.”

Burnett asked John if the teller “just thought it was a prank,” lamenting that after all of the questions, the pope was still unable to get his number changed with the bank.

“Prank call, yeah,” said John. “One of the provincials had to go into the bank and take care of it for him.”

McCarthy summed up the baffling story’s crux.

“Could you imagine being known as the woman who hung up on the pope?” he said.

Watch above via CNN.

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