“ Enthusiasm and joy '' – Chicago buzzing on the birthplace of the pope

The church where Pope Leo XIV attended mass as a child and served as an altar boy is now an empty shell.

Only the stained glass windows remain intact inside the robust facade of St Mary's of the hypothesis at the distant end on the southern side of Chicago.

Dismoline is an indication of the way in which the power and influence of the Catholic Church have passed in major American cities.

And yet, in this city, there is a palpable excitement, especially among Catholics, that the new pontiff is not only American – he is a southern chicago.

“When they said that the new pope was an American, I turned around, I said” no question “!” said Mary Simons, a French teacher and a nearby resident who brought her mother to see St Mary's.

“The church seems to become more and smaller in this country,” said Ms. Simons. “I hope it will rejuvenate the church and make it greater and better.”

A small net of Catholics, as well as some non -Catholics, went to St Mary's Thursday afternoon when the news spread that Pope Leo XIV – until recently, Cardinal Robert Prevost – had been elected by his cardinal colleagues in Rome.

While some deplore the poor state of the district church – “it is shocking to see this” remarkable a visitor – several were close to tears while they considered the humble roots of their new chief.

Natalie Payne attended the church and the school associated with it. She had not heard the news but was just going when she saw the little crowd outside and stopped to take the moment.

“We loved this school. It was a very family-oriented place and a big difference,” she said. “I was one of the few blacks who attended this school, but I always felt part of the community. It was just a beautiful place.”

Catholics represent around 20% of the American population, according to Pew Research, a number which increased from 24% at the beginning of the century. The attendance has fallen and the decline is noticeable in the major industrial cities of the Midwest, in closed schools and closed worships like St Mary's.

Leo XIV grew up in a modest house a few streets from here. The Chicago Sun -Totes reported that his parents – his father was a school administrator and his mother a librarian – bought their house in 1949, paying a mortgage of $ 42 per month.

His father was in French and Italian decent and his mother had a Spanish heritage, according to a Vatican press release.

Charleen Burnette, one of the former classmates of the Pope, told the BBC that she remembered him as a “calm, kind, sweet and nasty child”.

“He has always been the top of our class, all the time,” she said, recalling how he always knew he wanted to be a priest and stayed late to sweep and dust St Mary's as a boy.

“He expressed it. He lived it. He illustrated it,” she said.

In recent years, the Catholic Church has not only resisted the decline in attendance, but also scandals of child abuse that continue to resonate today.

The Augustinian midwest, a religious order in Chicago that Pope Leo has formerly led, published only a list of priests accused in a credible manner of sexual abuse in 2024, after years of public pressure.

As a cardinal, Prevost was criticized after being accused of having authorized a priest confronted with allegations of sexual abuse to live in an Augustinian building near a primary school. The priest was then moved and the religious order says that he tried to be transparent.

There is a common feeling here that the Church has not completely counted with the past, but despite this, many Catholics have expressed hope for the reign of the new Pope here.

Outside of Holy Name Cathedral, the center of the Catholic church in downtown Chicago, workers suspended bruants to prepare for a special mass on Friday morning.

Father Gregory Sakowicz, rector of Holy Name, said he was about to chair mass at the cathedral when the news broke out.

“When I saw white smoke on television, I watched out the window and the sun came here to Chicago,” he said.

“Later, during holy communion, someone said to me:” Father, the new pope is Father Robert Prévost de Chicago. “I was shocked.”

Father Sakowicz said Pope Leo XIV “will be his own man”, but added that he was convinced that he would follow the traces of his predecessor and would be “a voice for human rights, a voice for the voiceless, concerned about the poor and concerned by the mother earth”.

And in this city of sport, there is a question that could almost correspond to the importance of the theological direction of the new Pope – which of the city's baseball teams rooted?

Although there has been information that he supports the Chicago CubsIn interviews, the brother of the new pope said he applauds White Sox – The team with a base of fans passionate about South Side. However, the two teams on X claimed the support of the new Pope.

“Go White Sox – and go to Cubs,” said Father Sakowicz. “There is just a lot of enthusiasm and joy here.

“He may be from Chicago, but he will be a pope for the whole world, not just Chicago, not just the United States, not just North America-but the whole world.”

With the reports of Nadine Yousif