He is a man formed by his experience in the church of Chicago, especially the south side,’ writes Mark Francis, CSV.

Many sites associated with past popes’ lives have become museums or holy destinations for the faithful. But Pope Leo XIV’s childhood church in Chicago closed years ago.

In the breathless day since Pope Leo XIV’s election as the first US-born pontiff, the memes, doctored images, and tongue-in-cheek references have piled up deeper than Chicago’s pizza and more loaded than its hot dog, seemingly irresistible to comics and commoners alike.