He is a man formed by his experience in the church of Chicago, especially the south side,’ writes Mark Francis, CSV.

Many sites associated with past popes’ lives have become museums or holy destinations for the faithful. But Pope Leo XIV’s childhood church in Chicago closed years ago.

Catholic Chicagoans gathered in churches, cheered from classrooms and celebrated from their homes as the historic decision was announced that a native son, Cardinal Robert Prevost, had been elected pope.