Celebrations for the first American pope continued around the Chicago area in churches and schools and homes Friday.Pope Leo XIV grew up in south suburban Dolton. The world was shocked Thursday that an American from the U.

A Chicago-born cardinal walks into a conclave. The rest of the joke tells itself. In the breathless day since Pope Leo XIV’s election as the first American 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.

Born in the Windy City in 1955 to parents of Spanish and Franco-Italian descent, Prevost served as an altar boy and was ordained in 1982.