As white smoke billowed from the Vatican in Rome, yellow papal flags whipped in the crisp Lake Michigan breeze in front of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Academy on Chicago’s North Side.
Screams of “Habemus Papam!” echoed throughout the cafeteria at the Catholic school on Thursday afternoon, when news broke that Chicago’s Robert Prevost had become Pope Leo XIV.
Prevost was born on Chicago’s South Side and attended Catholic school at St Mary of the Assumption, a now defunct parish on the city’s far south-east side. Prevost studied divinity at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood, and taught at a local Catholic high school, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
Although he spent many years in Peru, where he worked as a missionary and later archbishop of Chiclayo, Chicagoans celebrated their native son at churches and schools around the city.
Seventh-grader Vincent Wall and eighth-grader Ava Broz were in the cafeteria at Mount Carmel, where students were waving US and city of Chicago flags.
“It really feels like a 2016 Cubs World Series,” said Wall, referring to the baseball team that endured a long drought before a triumphant victory in 2016. “It’s just like, a pope from Chicago is just global, and so is the World Series. It’s crazy.”
Allison Foerster, who teaches Spanish and religion at the school, was getting lunch when she saw students climbing on their desks to take a look at the computer screen playing a live feed of the white smoke. She found out the pope’s identity while monitoring recess.
“I’m supervising the kids playing soccer and then there’s five [of them] over my shoulder trying to watch,” said Foerster, who played the news on her phone.
On Tuesday, Wall and Broz participated as narrators in a mock conclave at Mount Carmel. Younger students dressed in scarlet robes and paper hats filed into a makeshift Sistine Chapel, the school’s auditorium, and discussed the qualifications for the next pope over snacks. The small cardinals were even flanked by a mini Swiss Guard, dressed in a suit that teacher Dominic Moretti had ordered from Italy.
“So they knew [today] was a moment of joy and a moment of celebration,” says Foerster.
Like Boston, Chicago boasts one of the strongest Catholic contingents in the United States. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, immigrants from Germany, Ireland, Poland and Italy formed vibrant parishes. Today, church spires are as prevalent in Chicago’s urban landscape as art deco motifs and skyscrapers.
Chicago’s Catholic community has faced many of the same headwinds the church has weathered across the US. In 2022, the Chicago archdiocese unveiled plans to slash its number of parishes by 123. Financial pressures, fewer priests and dwindling mass attendance pushed the diocese to consolidate. This March, data from Pew showed a 12% drop in the number of Chicagoans who identify as Christian, compared with data from a decade ago.
Meanwhile, the church’s continued battle with sexual abuse scandals comes at a time when secularism is on the rise in America.
But throughout the city on Thursday, the news of a hometown pope had people in high spirits. Ragen Eggert, a worker at the local hotdog stand the Wiener’s Circle, joked with patrons. “It’s officially a sin to have ketchup on a hotdog,” she said, a nod to the city’s famous Chicago-style recipe.
At Holy Name Cathedral, the imposing Gothic Revival church that rose out of the ashes of the Great Chicago fire of 1871, tourists and locals stopped to pray and to honor the new pope. Attenders were buoyed by the news it would be an American, who they believed would continue Pope Francis’s progressive vision for the church.
Janet Fink, a parishioner at Holy Name, was optimistic that Leo would follow in Francis’s footsteps.
“I loved that he [Francis] just embraced everyone, especially the poor and downtrodden, and he was a people’s pope,” she said. “I hope Pope Leo continues to be the people’s pope.”
Fink added that she was shocked to see not only a pope from Chicago, but one from the United States. Leo was widely considered a dark-horse candidate before the conclave, given a historical bias against choosing a pope from the United States.
“It’s just amazing. I didn’t think I would see it in my lifetime. It’s a wonderful surprise,” Fink said. “I think they’re [the church] listening to the lay people and I think they want to progress and not go backwards.”
Young adult Catholics at Holy Name expressed exuberance. Clara Downey, a 24-year-old PhD student at Loyola University and a biographer for a cardinal, had been waking up at 3.30am each morning waiting for news from the Vatican. Downey acknowledged that Leo is more moderate than Pope Francis. But she noted that Francis must have had confidence in him, since he appointed him as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, which supervises the selection of new bishops.
“Wonderful news that it is Bob Prevost. He’s a wonderful man, great pick,” Downey said. “It is, I think, indicative that the college [of cardinals] is looking to not rupture much from where Francis is taking the church.”
Like Francis, Leo is quickly following in predecessor’s footsteps as the most meme-able pontiff, at least in the Chicago area.
“I already saw somebody post an AI image of him with a bottle of Malört,” Downey said, referring to the bitter wormwood liquor popular in Chicago.
For some agnostics, Pope Leo’s announcement was a call back to the church.
Kara Baekey, who was visiting Chicago for her daughter Charlotte’s graduation from Loyola, said their family was not religious but was following the conclave and appreciated Pope Francis’s ideologies. The news felt personal to Baekey, whose parents met in Chicago, and signaled hope in a time of political uncertainty in the US. She wanted to find a Catholic church where she could pray for her country, adding that she was concerned about the “atrocities” Donald Trump is bringing.
“I feel like it’s kind of magical to be here in Chicago today,” Baekey said. “I hope that this pope will help to take our country on the correct path.”
