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.

Leaders of all faiths and on both sides of the aisle welcomed the South Side's own Robert Prevost — Pope Leo XIV — as head of the Catholic Church. "We hope to welcome you back home soon," Mayor Brandon Johnson said.

"The Pope is from Chicago. This is one of the biggest moments in the modern history of our city," said Mayor Brandon Johnson in a statement.

Pope Leo XIV became a new leader to the world’s 1.4 billion Roman Catholics. To the Rev. William Lego on the South Side of Chicago, who was watching television in his office when the new pope was announced,

The Prevost family belonged to the now-shuttered St. Mary of the Assumption Parish in the Riverdale neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago, then populated by throngs of Catholic families.