Pope Leo XIV’s old community of Dolton is finding hope in his election after years of violence and corruption for the suburb south of Chicago.

The former Cardinal Robert Prevost vowed to work for unity. “I think he will inspire,” said Susan Hanssen, a professor who was born in Chicago and just arrived in Rome to teach.

Robert Prevost, the Chicago-born missionary, was elected the first pope from the United States in the history of the Catholic Church.

On Monday, Vice President JD Vance met with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican, where he gifted the Chicago-born pope a custom Bears jersey, according to CBS News. It included his name (Pope Leo) and number (naturally, XIV). “Good choice,” he told Vance when he received the jersey.

"He’s the one who gave me permission to stay there" in 2000, James M. Ray, the former priest, told the Chicago Sun-Times about Robert Prevost, newly installed as pope but then head of the Midwest province of the Catholic church’s Augustinian order.

In Chicago, whether it’s architecture or Catholicism, we do ordinary very well. It’s one reason we now call Pope Leo XIV our own.

Whitey Rigsby had just landed in Chicago to attend a Villanova function and was still on the plane when his wife, Becky, called after the white smoke rose from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel. The pope wasn’t just an American,

Chicagoans in Rome this weekend who knew the former Robert Prevost during his religious studies on the South Side and work in Peru say he will lead the Catholic Church "with a deep sensitivity for people who are the most suffering,

Chicago Cardinal says when Pope Leo XIV is ready to travel to the United States, he will push for a Chicago stop.