Chicago’s South Side was solidly working class during Pope Leo’s childhood, said Rob Paral, a researcher at the Great Cities Institute at the University of Illinois Chicago. The family attended a South Side church, but they lived in Dolton, a suburb just past the city line.

In a place where civic pride is a way of life, Chicagoans need little help believing the election of Pope Leo shows their city is among God’s favorites.

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.