Chicagoans pack pews to celebrate South Side son Pope Leo XIV: 'It's fantastic'

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CHICAGO – Rome, the ancient city and historic home of the Catholic Church, felt close to the South Side on Sunday as Chicagoans were still grasping the reality that a son of the neighborhood had become pope, the first American ever.

Pope Leo XIV, the successor to Pope Francis, was born about three miles south of Chicago’s iconic downtown Loop area and first learned his faith at a parish abutting suburbs south of the city. Stunned residents have been celebrating the news since his election last week at the conclave.

“It’s fantastic,” said David Williams, a South Sider attending a packed Mass at Holy Name Cathedral. “Now we’re known for Michael Jordan, Al Capone and the pope. The Chicago holy trinity. We’ll let the public decide in what order they want to put them in.”

Leo’s election came as a complete surprise in Chicago. The city of 2.6 million people has long been known as a Catholic bastion in the United States. But a pope from the nation was regarded as unthinkable given America’s power on the world stage.

Now that Leo has been elected, some say a Chicagoan is actually just what the world needs.

“It shows us Jesus brings us from all walks of life, from the very rich to the very poor,” said Williams, 62, who welcomed Leo as a continuation of an ethic of service Francis established. “This is a great extension of the Christian tradition.”

Wife Frieda Williams expects he’ll be able to reach all people. 

“Chicago is multicultural and so they really got someone who is multicultural,” said the 68-year-old, noting Leo’s dual citizenship with Peru and Creole roots. “They really got someone who represents all people.”

Parishioners at the church located just north of the Loop said Mass on Sunday after Leo’s election was more crowded than Easter. 

The first Masses in Chicago after Leo’s election come as the South Side native delivered his own first Sunday address in St. Peter's Square, warning of a “piecemeal” third world war and appealing for peace.

All around his home city, churches were decorated with the yellow and white flags of the Vatican and churchgoers cheered “Viva Papa Leo XIV.”

Leo loves Chicago, cumbia and tennis, bishop says

St. Mary of the Assumption – the church where Leo learned his faith – is shuttered, but other institutions he served at remain and so do many people who knew him back when he was just Robert Francis Prevost.

Outside a South Side church on Sunday, Bishop Daniel Turley talked about the moment he learned Leo would be pope. He was at a Chicago house for Augustinians when white smoke started to billow from the Sistine Chapel at Vatican City, letting the world know a new pope had been chosen.

Turley, 82, thought then that it could be his old Augustinian brother and fellow South Sider: Robert Prevost.

“I did think it could be him, I really did,” Turley said. “It was not a total surprise.”

The two Augustinians followed oddly similar paths. They both grew up in South Side parishes a 20- minute drive apart, both joined the religious order that focuses on service as a path to God and both served in Peru. 

Turley was bishop of Chulucanas, located near the border with Ecuador and north of Chiclayo, where Leo served as bishop. Turley is also a dual Peruvian citizen.

“It’s really something − he’s from Chicago, he really likes Chicago, knows it well,” Turley said. But “he really got a missionary spirit and I think he’ll carry that with him as pope, so he’ll really have great concern for the whole world.”

Turley knew the soon-to-be pope as a fellow White Sox fan, avid tennis player and lover of the cumbia music common in northern Peru.

Serving as missionaries in the South American country gave them both a special appreciation for their faith, according to Turley.

 “The people are really holy people who would go the extra mile for you,” he said. “That strengthens your faith, when you meet good people and are around them a lot.”

Attending Mass felt like ‘walking on hallowed ground’

Everyday South Side parishioners also remember Leo from back when he was Cardinal Prevost.

“We were both really excited coming to church today, like we’re walking on hallowed ground,” said Alondra Aliviar outside Mass at St. Rita of Cascia, the South Side home of the Augustinian religious order Leo once headed. “He’s from home, this is our parish, it’s such a beautiful thing.”

Aliviar, 29, was attending Mass with husband Alfredo and their boys Theodore, 14 months, and Lucas, 4 months.

The family saw then-Cardinal Prevost on the South Side as recently as last year, when he blessed them.

“That’s as close as you get to meeting a pope for us,” said the 32-year-old dad. “We’re shocked, we’re blessed, happy and it hits home.”

Can Leo convert this Cubs fans?

Among churchgoers celebrating the news at Mass on Sunday were Ted and Katie Kolbus, in town to visit their son, Nathan.

The pair of 53-year-old lifelong Catholics said they had never imagined they’d get to see an American pope, let alone one from the Midwest.

“It’s just so exciting, especially getting to be here,” Katie said.

Nathan, 25, was also excited even if the pope is a White Sox fan.

“I’m more of a Cubs fan,” he said.

He dithered when asked if Pope Leo could convert him.

“Probably not, they’re pretty bad,” the downtown office worker said. “But maybe he can help turn things around.”