People who gathered outside the abandoned St. Mary of the Assumption this week mused about what the future might hold for Pope Leo XIV’s childhood church, given its new significance.

Pope Leo's childhood home in Dolton, Illinois, is officially back on the market and this time with photos inside.

Pope Leo’s hometown in the south suburbs was hit with economic hardship after the collapse of the steel industry on the Far South Side. But residents hope their new fame can spark opportunity.

In a place where a stranger might just as soon tell you their Catholic parish as their neighborhood, the Prevosts were regulars at St. Mary of the Assumption Parish in the Riverdale area on ...

In one of Chicago’s south suburbs, while other boys were playing cops and robbers, the future Pope Leo XIV would pretend to hold Mass in the basement of his family’s small brick home, reading ...

He went to primary school at St Mary of the Assumption parish in the nearby suburb of Riverdale. Pope Leo XIV is the first American pope. Photo: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images ...

Robert Francis Prevost — now Pope Leo XIV — is shown with his eighth-grade graduating class at St. Mary of the Assumption parish in Riverdale, Illinois.

St. Mary’s Church in the Riverdale neighborhood was the childhood church of Pope Leo XIV, celebrating its last Mass in 2012. (Photo: Vincent D Johnson)Vincent D Johnson ...

St. Mary of the Assumption Catholic grammar school in Chicago’s Riverdale neighborhood on May 8, 2025. The newly selected Pope Leo XIV went to grammar school at St. Mary’s.

In Riverdale, at St. Mary of the Assumption, Erdmann taught a sixth and seventh grade combined class while Prevost, 69, was in eighth grade. (The parish church and school have since closed.) ...