Pope Leo XIV’s best friend has described how the Catholic leader ditched a lecture at a spirituality conference, choosing instead to have a friendly game of tennis.

This week, Cardinal Robert Prevost, 69, a little-known missionary from the American city of Chicago, was made leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.

The pope appeared on the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica on Thursday after white smoke billowed from a chimney atop the Sistine Chapel, signifying the 133 cardinal electors had chosen a new leader.

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Prevost becomes the 267th Catholic pope, following the death in April of Pope Francis, who was the first Latin American pope who led the Catholic church for 12 years.

However, far from the pomp and ceremony of the age-old rituals, Father Tony Banks remembered how the pair first met and became best friends at a spiritual retreat in Chicago in 1981.

“We met at a spirituality conference in Chicago. Our first meeting was when we skipped part of the lectures to play tennis. He’s a much better player than I am,” Father Banks told Weekend Sunrise on Saturday.

Banks had nothing but praise for the religious leader as he was quizzed by Weekend Sunrise hosts David Woiwod and Sally Bowrey about what the pope was really like in person.

Banks said he was a “humble” man, filled with kind graces.

“(At his first homily) he spoke about humility. He would be the personification of that if he walked into a room. You wouldn’t pick him as the cardinal in the past, or as the pope in the present,” Banks said.

“He is a man who listens.

“He is courteous, polite.

“He’s a conciliator.

“He brings people together.”

Banks confirmed the pair didn’t grow-up together.

Banks spent his childhood in New Zealand, while the Pope grew-up in the United States.

However, the pair became good friends in their 20s.

“We met as students when I was 23 or 24, and he was two years younger than me,” Banks said.

“The person I encountered was a very mature adult.

“Even at that age, and he had a great love for being a participant in the world.

“He was interested in all sorts of things, whether it be sport, whether it be politics, whether it be just simply the facts of the people who were immediately around him.

“He was always aware of the people who were there (around him) and had an appreciation for them.

“He’s a very simply a man of the people.”

Banks said he hasn’t been able to speak to the pope since his election.

However, he said the religious leader could visit Australia, for an upcoming religious meeting in Sydney.

“We have a Eucharistic Congress happening in Sydney in a couple of years’ time, and I would think he, as pope, would want to be there for that,” Banks said.

Prevost has attracted interest from his peers because of his quiet style and support for Francis, especially his commitment to social justice issues.

Prevost served as a bishop in Chiclayo, in northwestern Peru, from 2015 to 2023.

Woiwod asked if Leo would be political in his role.

“The way he will engage politically is in dialogue rather than in confrontation,” Banks said.

“He was very direct in dealing with (US Vice President) J.D. Vance, but it was more an assertion that J.D. Vance was proposing something that was incorrect in theology.

“It wasn’t a critique immediately of his politics.

“I think he will be one who gets people to the table to actually talk, rather than being a man of conflict in politics. But that doesn’t mean he’ll be avoiding the politics.”

- with AAP