14 May 2025

It is inevitable that when someone becomes famous, people are interested to know his identity, where he grew up, what family he has etc. So it was with Robert Prevost when he became Pope Leo XIV last week. People made pilgrimage to Chicago.

Steve Budzik was already there. He had bought the house where the Pope had grown up with his brothers, his French father and Italian mother. The Polish entrepreneur buys run down properties and does them up for profit. He bought the Pope’s old house for $60,000. ‘Do you think I could make a million now?’ he asked.

Not far away is the church which the Pope attended in his childhood. It held its last mass in 2012 and now lies derelict. The tiled floor is sprinkled with broken glass from the windows. Sunlight shines through a large hole in the roof. The East wall is covered in graffiti. People have been smoking crack in the confessionals.

‘Usually when a cardinal becomes Pope. their home congregation goes nuts,’ said a neighbour. ‘But our church is dead. It struck me as a testament to where we are in the United States. This was such a vibrant Catholic community.’

Times have changed. Industry collapsed. People moved away. Communities became run down. Church attendance has waned even in America. The Pope knows all about this. He said in his opening address that he wanted to bring Catholics back to their faith. I hope he succeeds.

Despite its derelict condition, the vandalised church still holds important memories for people which cannot be eradicated. Once a boy assisted at the altar in this church, discovered he had a vocation to the priesthood, ministered in the poverty of a Peruvian parish and became Pope!