The experience was almost surreal.
A Chicago priest climbed aboard the iconic popemobile alongside the Holy Father, the two longtime friends traversing the cobblestone plaza of St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican as a crowd of tens of thousands cheered and waved.
During an October trip to Rome, the Rev. John Lydon of Hyde Park reunited with his former roommate, newly named Pope Leo XIV, a Chicago native whose historic election earlier this year marked the first American-born pontiff.
They shared a private talk in Leo’s apartment, reminiscing about their time together years ago as missionaries in Peru. The pope invited Lydon to join him for a ride in the famed popemobile, an electric Mercedes Benz custom-made for public appearances, after Mass on Sunday.
“It was very emotional,” Lydon recalled during a recent interview with the Tribune. “It was overwhelming, just to see the love the people have for the pope. Screaming his name. Screaming what town they were from and what country they were from and waving their flags and a million cellphones taking pictures.”
The Chicago area erupted in celebration May 8 at news that Robert Francis Prevost — born in Bronzeville and raised in south suburban Dolton — was chosen as the 267th pope and leader of an estimated 1.4 billion Catholics worldwide.
Chicago has reveled in the glory of a hometown pope who cast a divine light on the city, elevating its status on the international stage and reigniting the faith of many locals.
A clip of students at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Academy in Lakeview holding their own mock papal conclave went viral in May. Then the boys and girls, dressed as cardinals and a pope, traveled to Vatican City to meet the pontiff in person in October.
The Chicago White Sox unveiled an art installation at Rate Field near Section 140, Row 19, Seat 2, commemorating where the man who would become pope famously sat during Game 1 of the 2005 World Series, a tribute to the South Sider’s devotion as a fan.
Local restaurants crafted pontifical-themed menu items including a limited-time Portillo’s sandwich dubbed “The Leo,” described as “divinely seasoned Italian beef, baptized in gravy, and topped with your choice of sweet or hot peppers.”
“It made people who live in Chicago proud that we produced a pope,” recalled Cardinal Blase Cupich, who took part in the historic papal conclave that selected Prevost.
The archbishop of Chicago lamented that the reputation of the city is often equated with violence, largely by outsiders with a political agenda.
President Donald Trump, in particular, has frequently targeted Chicago, calling it a “death trap,” “war zone” and “killing field” since the start of his second term.
Yet the election of a new pope with local roots and tastes — an affinity for Aurelio’s Pizza and cheering on the White Sox, Bulls and Bears — has in many ways uplifted Chicago’s image on a global scale.
“This was a moment where we could really hold our head high,” Cupich said. “That somebody from our own neighborhoods was elected to be the successor of (St.) Peter. So I think it really was a shot in the arm to the city.”
Leo’s selection has also forged deeper ties between Chicago and Vatican City.
In his most significant U.S. appointment so far, the pope last week named Joliet Bishop Ronald Hicks, who grew up in South Holland some 14 blocks from Leo’s childhood home, as the next archbishop of New York. The two met for the first time in 2024, but they share the same childhood parish through a series of church consolidations by the Chicago Archdiocese in recent years.
“We would have played baseball in the same parks, swimming in the same public pools — and we even share a famous pizza place that’s our favorite,” Hicks said.
Numerous Chicagoans have made pilgrimages to meet the Holy Father in the past seven months, some bearing gifts of local sports memorabilia to honor their home-grown pope.
Chicago Bulls play-by-play radio announcer Chuck Swirsky traveled to Vatican City in November and presented the pontiff with an authentic Bulls jersey, inscribed with “Pope Leo” and the number 14 on the back.
“Other than the birth of my children, it was the most significant day of my life,” recalled Swirsky, a devout Catholic.
The cardinal believes the pontiff’s upbringing in Chicago has helped frame both his spirituality and papal priorities, from navigating global strife and multiple wars overseas to championing care for the environment and the plight of migrants — particularly amid the Trump administration’s ongoing immigration crackdown, which has had a significant focus on Chicago.
The 70-year-old Augustinian priest and former missionary “has a universal outlook on life that in many ways is an appreciation that he gained from Chicago being an international city,” Cupich said, noting that churches across the Archdiocese of Chicago celebrate Mass in more than two dozen languages.
While the pontiff is an all-embracing leader representing the global church, Chicago’s imprint on Leo is undeniable, Lydon added.
“As everyone is, they’re marked by the culture they’re born in, the formation they received. Up to the sports teams he roots for and the foods he likes. All of that is part and parcel of where we’re born,” Lydon said. “People in Chicago can identify with him. They understand how he was raised. … It does mean something.”
The conclave
White smoke streamed from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel on May 8, a beacon to the world that a new pope was chosen.
The name sent waves of shock and joy that reverberated across Chicagoland: Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, born at Mercy Hospital and already known to many locals as “Father Bob,” would lead the next stage of church history.
As newly elected Pope Leo XIV stepped out onto the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica for the first time, the cardinal from Chicago looked on from an adjacent balcony and marveled at the magnitude of the moment.
Throngs of men, women and children filled St. Peter’s Square down to the Tiber River, awaiting the first glimpse of the new pontiff.
“There will never be another moment like it in my life,” Cupich recalled.
This was Cupich’s first papal conclave and he was struck by the cohesion of the decision.
At a time of great conflict and discord worldwide, 133 cardinals from more than 70 different countries took part in the ancient ritual, coming to a vote in roughly 33 hours.
From Vatican City, Cupich’s thoughts drifted to folks back home in Chicago, who were watching and absorbing the reality that one of their own had been named pope.
“It was really quite remarkable, the euphoria that was celebrated in the city,” he said.
The Archbishop of Chicago anticipates Leo will continue to advocate for the most vulnerable in society — the poor and marginalized, as well as immigrants and refugees, which has been a cornerstone of his first seven months.
The pope is convening all the cardinals for a meeting at the Vatican in early January, where Cupich said he expects to learn more.
For now, Cupich points to the pope’s first words of peace, dialogue and bridge-building.
“My hope would be that at Christmastime, people would promote peace in their own families and neighborhoods, in the state, the country and the world,” he added. “We surely need that message in this day and age.”
The inauguration
Leo’s friends and loved ones from the Chicago area flocked to the Vatican for his May 18 inauguration Mass, marking the official start of his pontificate.
Dignitaries and faith leaders traveled there from around the world. Worshippers stood shoulder to shoulder filling St. Peter’s Square, encircled by the piazza’s majestic 284-column elliptical colonnades, designed to represent the church embracing humanity.
The pope’s older brother, Louis Prevost, attended as a guest of Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic who led the American delegation to the celebration. After the ceremony, the pope broke protocol to greet his brother with a hug.
Louis Prevost only wished their mother and father, both pious Catholics, had lived to see their son become the Holy Father, he told the Tribune during an interview a few days before his trip.
“There was always the belief, the support there from them,” he said.
During Leo’s homily, he lamented the increasingly divided nature of the world, while yearning for reconciliation.
Lydon was among the faithful who made the nearly 5,000-mile trip from Chicago.
Sitting with his fellow Augustinian friars, he grew emotional watching his old friend receive the sacred symbols of the papacy: the fisherman’s ring, representing the pope’s link to St. Peter, and the pallium, a white wool vestment worn on the shoulders, intended to evoke the image of a shepherd carrying the lost sheep.
“You never think someone you know is going to become pope,” Lydon said. “It’s just something that happens by the act of God.”
It wasn’t until the October visit to Rome that they met in person, inside Leo’s apartment.
The pontiff is staying in the same residence he lived in as cardinal during renovation of the papal apartments in the Apostolic Palace, following a hiatus of their use under Pope Francis, who eschewed the tradition and instead lived in the Casa Santa Marta guesthouse.
Lydon recalled Leo’s apartment was modest and simple, though well-secured by Swiss Guards who checked the priest’s identification and accompanied him up the elevator.
A portrait of Pope Leo XIII decorated an apartment wall, a tribute to one of the Holy Father’s namesakes who was known for diplomacy and supporting the rights of workers.
Leo XIV “has always lived rather simply,” recalled Lydon, who lived and worked with him when they were missionary priests in Peru in the 1990s, a period of poverty, human rights abuses and terrorism.
“I presume he will move into the more elaborate, more traditional apartments that the popes had always lived in,” he said. “They probably have paintings on the wall and frescos. None of that means anything, I think, to him other than that’s the historic place the popes lived at. And he’s very conscious of history and wants to respect the history.”
Before Lydon left, the pope signed a copy of a book the priest had written on Catholic social teaching, “Pope Leo XIV.”
Conflict, foreign wars
In the first few days of his papacy, Leo weighed in on international crises and wars, promoting the Holy See’s role in global peacemaking.
“Weapons can and must be silenced, for they do not resolve problems but only increase them,” he said a few days after being named pope.
During his first general audience in St. Peter’s Square in May, he urged humanitarian aid to be allowed into war-torn Gaza, amid reports of famine and starvation.
In Leo’s first Sunday address, he expressed sorrow for the people of beleaguered Ukraine fighting off the Russian invasion. He met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy several times, including earlier this month.
The pontiff recently criticized the Trump administration’s plan for peace in Ukraine, which includes huge territorial concessions for Russia, in part because it has sidelined and degraded Europe’s role.
This is one key area where Leo has deviated from the stance of his predecessor, said Anna Grzymala-Busse, professor in the department of political science at Stanford University.
“Pope Francis was under the impression that ‘peace’ involved Ukrainian concessions, and that Russia was not the main antagonist,” said Grzymala-Busse, an expert on religion and politics. “He came off as naive and uninformed, and did little to bolster the Vatican’s standing.”
Former Ukrainian first lady Kateryna Yushchenko, who was born and raised in Chicago, said Leo is appreciated in Ukraine for his “moral stance” on the war, noting he has “upheld international law and defended our country’s sovereignty — a clear contrast to those pressuring Ukraine to accept a revision of its borders.”
Finances, sex abuse crisis
Leo took the reins amid a particularly challenging time as the global Catholic church continues to grapple with its sexual abuse crisis.
The Vatican has also been plagued by persistent financial troubles, though it recently reported the first budget surplus in years, indicating a potential turnaround.
Survivors organizations have criticized the pope for his handling of two local sex abuse cases involving Augustinian priests in the Chicago area years ago. The group Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests filed a complaint against Prevost with the Vatican last year, detailing his alleged mistakes in Chicago while he headed the Midwest Augustinian religious order and as well as later while serving as a bishop in Peru.
An official with the Midwest Augustinians previously told the Tribune that the order remains “steadfast in our commitment to the safety and well-being of the children and youth entrusted to our care,” adding that Prevost had established protocols for promoting child protection in 2001 with a record showing a “dedication to child safety.”
Earlier this month, the New Orleans Archdiocese agreed to pay at least $230 million to hundreds of victims of clergy sexual abuse under a settlement approved by a federal judge. The Archdiocese of New York also announced this month that it would establish a $300 million fund to compensate survivors of sexual abuse who have sued the church.
The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors released a report in October urging financial reparations, greater accountability within the church and acknowledgement of harm as well as tougher sanctions for abusers and their enablers.
Later in October, Leo met at the Vatican with clergy abuse survivors and advocates, who pressed for a “zero-tolerance” policy on abuse in the Catholic church.
SNAP Executive Director Angela Walker, who was not part of the October meeting, said the Vatican must do more to end the scourge of clergy sex abuse.
“We want the perpetrators held to account and we want individual survivors to have and seek justice,” she said. “And we want this culture of silence that has gone on far too long within the church to be lifted.”
Chicago celebrates its pope
The image of Pope Leo XIV loomed large from the giant scoreboard in Rate Field, home of the pontiff’s beloved White Sox.
Below the screen, thousands of people in the stands eagerly awaited his message during a June 14 Mass and celebration honoring the Chicago native’s recent election and hosted by the Archdiocese of Chicago.“Discover how important it is for each one of us to pay attention to the presence of God in our own hearts,” the pontiff said during a pre-recorded address from the Holy See. “To that longing for love in our lives. For searching, a true searching, for finding the ways that we may be able to do something with our own lives to serve others. And in that service to others, we may be able to find that in coming together in friendship, building up community, we too can find true meaning in our lives.”
Cupich believes the attendance at Mass that day was among the largest in archdiocesan history, though it was eclipsed by the famous 1979 outdoor Mass in Grant Park celebrated by Pope John Paul II, the only pontiff to ever visit Chicago.
“The only thing that’s going to surpass it is when and if (Pope Leo) comes to visit Chicago,” Cupich said, though he said he had no intel on when the Holy Father might make a trip back to his birthplace.
“He knows that he’d be most welcomed,” Cupich added.
The Rate Field celebration was emceed by Swirsky, the Bulls announcer, who called it an “unbelievable experience.”
At the time, Swirsky had no idea he’d be face-to-face with the pontiff just five months later.
Yet in November, on a whirlwind trip to Vatican City, he unexpectedly had the opportunity to give Leo the Bulls jersey in person.
“Our hands became intertwined and I kissed his ring,” said Swirsky, who serves as a Eucharistic minister and lector at Holy Name Cathedral. “For a kid growing up going to Catholic school and being taught by sisters and priests, it was just amazing. To be in the presence of the pope and what the pope in our faith signifies … it was an event that I will never ever forget.”
Swirsky recalled telling the Holy Father, “Chicago has embraced you.”
“We can’t wait for you to return,” he said to Leo. “We can’t wait for you to come to a Bulls game and a White Sox game.”
Environmental preservation
Surrounded by the lush Italian-style gardens and intricate topiaries of the vast papal summer estate, Leo held a July outdoor Mass “for the care of creation,” another key theme of his papacy.
For the service, he donned bright green and gold vestments specially designed by Chicago retailer House of Hansen Inc., a more than century-old clerical apparel business in the Irving Park neighborhood. The liturgical garments were hand-delivered to the pope by the Rev. Daniel Groody, vice president and associate provost for undergraduate education at the University of Notre Dame, who attended the Mass.
Taking in the stretches of farmland and ornate landscaping all around, the pope noted that they were worshipping in “a kind of ‘natural’ cathedral.”
Those grounds are the home of the Vatican’s vast ecological experiment called the Borgo Laudato Si’, located in the hilltop town of Castel Gandolfo, just southeast of Rome.
The roughly 135-acre project is designed to entwine two prime Vatican missions: environmental protection and care for often-vulnerable populations such as the poor, migrants and refugees.
Launched by Pope Francis, the site was intended to be a real-world manifestation of his landmark 2015 environmental encyclical “Laudato Si’.”
The seminal project is led by the Rev. Manuel Dorantes, a priest from the Chicago archdiocese who was born in Mexico and moved to north suburban Waukegan as a child.
“The job itself, taking the lead of this entire property and turning it into an example for the world on environmental sustainability and human dignity, the vision was grand,” Dorantes recalled in May, when he took the Tribune on a tour of the papal summer estate.
Leo formally inaugurated the Borgo Laudato Si’ during a September ceremony.
With Dorantes by his side, the pope toured the grounds and celebrated a liturgy there, reaffirming his commitment to environmental protection and the legacy of his predecessor.
Next year, Chicago restaurateurs Phil Stefani and Art Smith, former private chef to talk show host Oprah Winfrey, are slated to launch the site’s first restaurant, incorporating the principles of Laudato Si’ into their business model.
Vocational training in hospitality and culinary work will be provided to local folks in need, who will later be able to work at the restaurant to gain job experience. Some of the food will derive from papal estate farmland; some will be brought in from local farms that follow sustainability practices.
Groody of Notre Dame said his university intends to host a pilot class in integral biology at the Borgo Laudato Si’ in March, another local connection to the Vatican project.
Meredith O’Connor traveled from Chicago to attend the Borgo Laudato Si’ inauguration, presenting Leo with an authentic Bears jersey with the number 14.
For loved ones and relatives back home, she brought pieces of jewelry and religious items that were blessed by Leo, including a cross and rosary for a terminally ill friend of the family who was like a second father to her.
O’Connor gave him the cross and rosary during a hospital visit, shortly before he passed away.
Rising above crosstown rivalries, the pontiff even blessed O’Connor’s Cubs hat.
Although Leo is a die-hard White Sox fan, he told her his mother rooted for the Cubs — and she used to say that if the kids didn’t cheer on her team that day, they wouldn’t get supper, O’Connor recalled, laughing.
“It was a spiritual experience,” said O’Connor, vice chairman at real estate services firm JLL. “It was like an out-of-body experience, meeting a person I never thought I’d get to meet. And he was so genuine and so kind and so authentic.”
Immigration
As the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement escalated across the Chicago area, Leo has offered a counter-message, condemning the “inhumane” treatment of immigrants in the United States and suggesting countries be more welcoming to people born outside their borders.
During an October meeting with Chicago labor union leaders in Vatican City, the pontiff encouraged them to advocate for immigrants.
“He specifically thanked us and asked us to continue the work we do for immigrants and providing support services for them, everything from food bank work and other activism that labor engages in to protect immigrant communities,” recalled Bob Reiter, president of the Chicago Federation of Labor.
Reiter said he had the honor of meeting Pope Francis years ago.
As incredible as that was, being in the presence of Pope Leo transcended the experience, he recalled.
“I was standing there meeting with the leader of the Catholic church, who is also a south suburbanite like I am,” he said. “Having all those related experiences — a kid from Lockport and a kid from Dolton are in the papal palace, talking about how we need to protect immigrants.”
The encounter was so powerful in part because it took place as Chicago was “under assault by President Trump” and the Department of Homeland Security, added Reiter, a board member of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.
Immigration raids and increasingly aggressive arrests have sparked terror across Chicagoland amid the ongoing ramped-up enforcement termed Operation Midway Blitz.
Leo decried the mistreatment of immigrants in the United States later in October.
“With the abuse of vulnerable migrants, we are not witnessing the legitimate exercise of national sovereignty, but rather serious crimes committed or tolerated by the state,” he said, according to the Holy See.
The pope is teaching that “every human being is a child of God and bears the image of God,” said Miguel Diaz of Loyola University Chicago, a former U.S. ambassador to the Holy See who met with Pope Leo at the Vatican in September.
“There is to be no discrimination on the basis of documentation,” Diaz added. “And that to me also summarizes part of what his papacy has already signaled and will continue to signal.”
Local clergy and religious sisters have repeatedly attempted to bring Holy Communion to the Immigration Customs and Enforcement detention facility in west suburban Broadview, only to be rebuffed each time by Homeland Security officials, citing protocol and safety concerns.
The pope rebuked this denial of the Eucharist in November, stressing that those in detention still have “spiritual rights.”
Leo’s local ties, as the grandson of immigrants, give him a keen understanding of the plight of migrants in Chicago, which he’s able to relay to the world, Reiter said.
“Pope Leo embraces the fact that he’s from Chicago in a very intentional way. While he’s the pope, I think it also gives him a relatability factor that people appreciate,” Reiter added. “It has given him a platform to speak specifically on the migrant crisis we have, the attack on migrants … and his ability to step in.”
