A Pope, a President and a GOAT

Leo XIV is only the latest major figure to hail from Chicago.

Chicago: People must be wondering how Chicago does it. The Windy City is now the official hometown of Pope Leo XIV, formerly known as Robert Francis Prevost. Can you think of another city in the world responsible for a pope, a president and the greatest basketball player of all time?

Newly elected Pope Leo XIV, Cardinal Robert Prevost of the Unites States delivers the "Urbi et Orbi" (to the city and to the world) message from the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica, at the Vatican, May 8, 2025. (REUTERS)

That president is Barack Obama, whose early career as a community organizer on the city’s South Side built his brand as he began to rise through the Illinois machine. Like his politics or not, Mr. Obama was a force in American government. He became the country’s first black president, campaigning on a message of unity. (That was the message, letter writers!)

Michael Jordan needs no introduction. Thirteen-year-olds who weren’t born when he retired watch his highlight reels and wear his sneakers. The consensus in the back of my car is that Michael is still the GOAT. LeBron? Sorry, but please. And now we have a Windy City pope.

Pope Leo was a child of the South Side, and that helps explain his rise and his commitment to social justice. Scrappy is part of the uniform. The Chicago Tribune says he was raised in Dolton, just outside the city’s limits, and went on to study theology at the Catholic Theological Union in East Hyde Park. He worked as a missionary in Peru, but the Trib notes his Chicago roots “imply tenacity, strength and fearlessness.”

Correct. Anyone who lives in Chicago recognizes that description and knows the Michael-Barack-Leo trinity isn’t an accident. The city wheels grind on Midwestern grit. People are competitive but awfully nice, because you don’t last long here with the staccato manners of New York City. The city is famous for its hot dogs and knows that’s a badge of pride. It brags that it’s home to more Polish people than Warsaw (though Warsaw might protest). It has immigrant communities with generational neighborhood roots mixed with the smart children of Midwestern farm towns who wanted to get out, but not too far from family to drive home for a weekend.

Did I mention the lake effect? Chicagoans call Lake Michigan the country’s Third Coast, and they aren’t exactly wrong. It’s a gorgeous summer spectacle, as good as any ocean for summer beaching. But it’s also not an ocean, and calling it the Third Coast reveals the Midwestern striving ethos that’s part of Chicago’s culture.

The city is all the more remarkable because its character shines through a history of remarkably lousy city governments. The Daley machine politics are a source of nostalgia to residents who have lived through the mayoral regimes of Lori Lightfoot and the un-wonderful Brandon Johnson. But that’s the city’s story: Chicagoans know how to survive a long hard winter.

The cardinals aren’t unsavvy in their choice of the first American pope in these rather unusual political times in the U.S. Protecting the Vatican’s singular voice in world politics is on the agenda, and perhaps Pope Leo’s words will be a bit harder to discount. President Trump said after the announcement that the American pope was “such an honor for our country” and that “we’re a little bit surprised, and we’re very happy.”

Chicagoans are happy too, and not surprised at all.

Ms. Levy is a member of the Journal’s editorial board.