After Robert Francis Prevost became Pope Leo XIV and the first pontiff from the United States, an image spread across social media that claimed to show a New York Times headline saying he helped establish an autonomous zone for demonstrators protesting police brutality in 2020 in Seattle,

The election of Cardinal Robert Prevost​, who will now forever be known as Pope Leo XIV​ and the first American pope​,​ stirred many emotions on Thursday afternoon in New York City.

Faithful followers flocked to Manhattan’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral to say prayers and offer best wishes to Cardinal Robert Prevost, the new Pope Leo, leader of the Catholic Church.

Chicago’s South Side was solidly working class during Pope Leo’s childhood, said Rob Paral, a researcher at the Great Cities Institute at the University of Illinois Chicago. The family attended a South Side church, but they lived in Dolton, a suburb just past the city line.

In a place where civic pride is a way of life, Chicagoans need little help believing the election of Pope Leo shows their city is among God’s favorites.

Sisters Isabel Fitzgerald, 11, Vivian Fitzgerald, 8, and Lucia Fitzgerald, 5, from Chicago, stand inside St. Mary of the Assumption Parish, where Pope Leo XIV, Robert Prevost of the United States, used to attend while growing up,