Visitors flock to Pope Leo XIV's childhood home and church near Chicago

A modest, vacant single-family home in the village of Dolton, near Chicago, is attracting visitors interested in the early life of Pope Leo XIV. The newly elected pontiff spent his childhood in the working-class neighborhood, where local residents recall a close-knit community centered around the church he once attended.

Terri Crowley, Retired Chicago Public School Teacher said "We're just excited to see his church, where he went to school, and now his house, where he grew up, just to get a feel for what it was like for him as a child. So we're hoping for the best. And we're also excited that he has dual citizenship. That really makes it for us because he's going to have a nice global approach towards his ministry. And I think that's what the world really needs right now. We all need to be brought together, not divided."

Though some former residents note a decline in the area’s condition in recent years, the pope’s connection to the neighborhood has renewed interest and reflection among locals. The site has become a quiet point of pilgrimage for those tracing the origins of the new leader of the Catholic Church.