How to find Pope Leo in Chicago, or at home
Pope Leo XIV quipped that “great things happen in Chicago” after being asked about divine intervention and the White Sox’s playoff run. The article looks at Chicago’s Catholic history, beginning with Jesuit missionary Jacques Marquette’s arrival at the Chicago River in 1674. The Archdiocese of Chicago was founded in 1843 and marked its 175th anniversary in 2018.
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Pope Leo XIV’s Chicago roots can be explored through the city’s historic Catholic churches, sites connected to his childhood and family, and places tied to his namesake. The article also suggests ways to connect with those roots from elsewhere, from praying familiar devotions to sharing some of the Pope’s interests and family traditions. 1
Pope Leo called Chicago a place where “great things happen” in a joking exchange about the White Sox. The article traces the city’s Catholic history to Jesuit missionary Jacques Marquette, who arrived at the Chicago River in 1674; the Marquette Monument stands near the site of his winter camp. 1
The Archdiocese of Chicago was founded in 1843, as immigrants arriving through the Great Lakes helped establish the city’s many ethnic parishes. Among the historic churches highlighted are Old St. Patrick’s, which narrowly escaped the 1871 Great Chicago Fire, and Holy Family Church, where seven candles promised by its founding priest, Arnold Damen, are still kept burning before a statue of Our Lady of Perpetual Help. 1
Old St. Patrick’s now offers daily Mass, five Sunday services, and tours. The article also points to Our Lady of Perpetual Help, a Polish Catholic parish, and notes that its renovated church includes a public café open Thursday through Saturday. 1
St. Mary of the Assumption, the church and school attended by Robert Prevost as a child, are vacant and privately owned, with hopes of restoration. The parish was founded in 1886 for German Catholics working on the railroad and their families. 1
Other sites linked to Prevost include the Chicago Theological Union, where he studied, and St. Rita High School, where he worked as a substitute teacher. St. Rita of Cascia Shrine Chapel, served by Augustinians since 1907, holds a monthly novena Mass and prayers. He also visited St. Gabriel Parish and School, where his brother John was principal; the parish community later made a pilgrimage to Rome and greeted the Pope. 1
The article highlights two further papal connections: Pope Leo visited the Shrine of Our Lady of Pompeii in Italy on the first anniversary of his election, and Pope Leo XIII encouraged Mother Cabrini to travel west. Chicago’s National Shrine of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini includes the room where she died. Mercy Hospital, where Prevost was born, was founded in 1852 by the Irish Sisters of Mercy and is now Insight Hospital and Medical Center. 1
The article suggests learning about devotions to Our Lady of Perpetual Help or Our Lady of Pompeii, and praying to St. Peregrine for the health of Pope Leo and his brother Louis. It also recommends enjoying thin-crust pepperoni pizza—identified as the Pope’s favorite—and notes that Aurelio’s Pizza in Homewood serves a “Poperoni” in his honor. 1
Other ideas draw on the Pope’s personal history: try long-form math problems, since mathematics was his college major; encourage children to play Mass or serve at the altar; or continue the Prevost family tradition of viewing downtown Christmas windows and sharing a meal afterward. The article also mentions that Pope Leo plays Wordle or Words With Friends with his brother John. 1*
The Church’s role in shaping Chicago’s religious and civic identity
The Church has shaped Chicago’s identity not only by giving Catholic life a visible center, but by offering a way to understand the city’s diversity and a moral vocabulary for its civic life. In Pope John Paul II’s account, Chicago’s Catholic identity is rooted in communion among people of different backgrounds, while its civic contribution is expressed through service, respect for human dignity, and work for justice and unity. The available sources illuminate that vision and a few examples of it, but do not provide a full historical account of how the Church influenced Chicago’s development.
In 1979, John Paul II described Holy Name Cathedral as a sign of the unity of the Archdiocese of Chicago. Its significance, he said, rested not simply in the building but in the faith of generations who had sought holiness and justice in Christ.
Here there is symbolized and actuated the unity of this Archdiocese, this local Church—rich in history and in fidelity, rich in generosity to the Gospel, rich in the faith of millions of men, women and children who over the decades have found holiness and justice in our Lord Jesus Christ.
That image presents religious identity as something shared across the city: a local community gathered around the same faith, worship, and mission. It does not mean that every Chicagoan belongs to the Church, or that the city’s identity is exclusively Catholic. Rather, the Archdiocese offers a visible religious community within a larger, plural city, and sees its mission as directed both to its members and to the wider public. John Paul II explicitly wished to express solidarity with Chicago’s authorities and people, and to encourage efforts toward brotherhood, dignity, and unity.
The Church’s religious identity in Chicago is also portrayed as capable of holding together cultural diversity without requiring it to disappear. At a Mass in Grant Park, John Paul II acknowledged the varied cultural and ethnic heritages of those gathered. He then distinguished that shared civic history from a deeper religious unity: belonging to the People of God through faith and baptism. In his account, the Eucharist expresses and continually strengthens that unity.
This is a theological claim, not a description of all Chicagoans: Catholics are united in Christ, while the city as a whole includes people of different religions and none. Nor does Christian unity require uniformity of culture. John Paul II described the Church as one body whose many members are enriched by their differences, while remaining united in faith.
That distinction helps explain how the Church can shape a city’s religious identity without treating cultural difference as a problem to be eliminated. The Catholic vision is that common belonging can coexist with varied backgrounds and forms of service. Its civic relevance lies in the hope that a city’s communities can seek solidarity without demanding sameness.
The Church’s public presence is not limited to worship or statements of belief. John Paul II pointed to the Campaign for Human Development as an example of Catholic action directed toward poverty and injustice. He praised initiatives that supported self-help projects, described as helping address causes and effects of injustice, and said they had contributed to a more humane and just social order. The speech also reported that 1,500 groups and organizations had been founded through the campaign; that figure concerns the campaign generally, not Chicago alone.
This example connects religious identity to civic responsibility: service to people in need is presented as a consequence of the Church’s Christian mission, rather than as a substitute for it. John Paul II described service to the needy as something done in the name of Jesus, and framed the Church’s public presence in terms of fraternity, dignity, and unity.
The US bishops likewise describe Catholic participation in public life as drawing on both a moral framework and practical experience serving people: educating children, caring for the sick, sheltering the homeless, feeding the hungry, and welcoming immigrants and refugees. These are presented as contributions to political dialogue and the common good—not as grounds for claiming that Catholics alone should define civic priorities.
Catholic teaching calls the Church to contribute to debate on social questions, including human life, justice and peace, immigration, family life, and marriage. John Paul II described such engagement as a service to the common good in a democracy, especially when arguments draw not only on shared religious convictions but also on reason and law.
That model helps distinguish civic participation from political control. The bishops teach that faith should inform Catholics’ participation in political parties and other groups, rather than political affiliation determining what Catholics believe. They also describe laypeople as having a particular role in bringing a Christian spirit to the life of society, while priests provide spiritual guidance. On this account, the Church’s civic influence is meant to come through moral witness, public reasoning, service, and the actions of its members—not through treating the city’s government as an extension of ecclesiastical authority.
The Church’s own example matters too. John Paul II warned that people judge the Christian message partly by the conduct and concern shown by the Church’s pastors. A claim to serve dignity and justice therefore carries an obligation: the Church’s institutions and members must seek to embody the values they proclaim.
Taken together, these sources present the Church as shaping Chicago’s identity in two linked ways: religiously, through a local community united in faith while embracing cultural diversity; and civically, through service and moral participation directed toward human dignity and the common good. They offer a powerful theological account of how the Church understands its place in the city, alongside examples such as Holy Name Cathedral and the Campaign for Human Development.
They do not, however, establish a comprehensive history of the Church’s effect on Chicago’s politics, neighborhoods, schools, labor movements, or demographic development. Those historical questions would require evidence beyond these texts. What these sources do establish is the Church’s stated vision: Catholic identity should be publicly present, but in service to the whole city—seeking fraternity and justice while respecting human beings beyond the boundaries of Catholic faith.