AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Pope Leo XIV's childhood home in Dolton, Illinois, just outside Chicago, has become a popular tourist destination. Pilgrims and tourists from all over the world stop by. Some devout believers touch the house, hoping it will heal their illness. Others take rocks or leaves from trees in the yard. Longtime residents say the house is a sign of hope for their town. Adora Namigadde has more from the pope's hometown.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
ADORA NAMIGADDE, BYLINE: An eight-hour Gregorian chant YouTube playlist streams out Donna Sagna Davis' windows and plays softly in the yard. There's a fold-up table with free bottled water and soda for visitors.
DONNA SAGNA DAVIS: Food always brings people together, drinking. The outreaches that I've been a part of, they always had food. It was always something free, and we talked, and we hung out at church.
NAMIGADDE: That is the atmosphere Davis is aiming to replicate in this corner of the South Side. She lives next door to the pope's childhood home. Davis says everyday, people are taking pictures and praying in front of the modest brick house. Some people come in hopes that touching the pope's childhood home will offer healing of physical ailments.
DAVIS: People touch the house to get healed. They take rocks home and the leaves off the tree. I mean, they're really, really into this big time. Even my husband took a rock, and he put it in his pocket, said it's a holy sacred rock.
NAMIGADDE: A fitting symbol since Catholics regard Pope Leo as the rock of the church. Luis Guanoluisa stopped by with his friend on a gray weekday morning. They were visiting from Ecuador.
LUIS GUANOLUISA: (Speaking Spanish).
NAMIGADDE: He's saying being at the pope's house makes him feel like he is with the pope and that that closeness draws him closer to Jesus. The simple three-bedroom home is 1,050 square feet and features minimal stone landscaping. The door is bright red, and there are a couple Our Lady of Guadalupe pillar candles on the front concrete steps. There's a sign on the front lawn marking 212 East 141st Place as the pope's childhood home.
The village of Dolton put up the sign after purchasing the house for $375,000, almost 30% more than the asking price. The neighborhood's fallen on hard times since the pope's family sold the house in 1996. There used to be a couple of large steel mills here, but the decline of the U.S. manufacturing economy and white flight have left behind a village where some residents don't feel their basic needs are being met.
Down the street, resident Geovani Murphy says she's happy the village bought the property. She's lived on this block for 10 years. She says that with recent political shifts, the town's future was improving.
GEOVANI MURPHY: So people were getting ready for a great shift, and we were already going towards a positive, and the pope just sealed the deal.
NAMIGADDE: Mayor Jason House, who took office a few months ago, told constituents that purchasing Pope Leo's childhood home was an investment in the town's future.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JASON HOUSE: This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. We can either seize this moment and move it forward, or we can let that moment go to an investor.
NAMIGADDE: Mayor House said the town plans to renovate the pope's childhood home and open it to the public. Neighbor Elaine Wheatley hopes the village turning the house into a historic landmark will inspire kids in the neighborhood to dream big.
ELAINE WHEATLEY: And I believe that house there, when children are walking by that house with that sign there, that says look at what he did. If he can do it, so can I.
NAMIGADDE: She says if anyone should own the house, it should be the people of Dolton.
For NPR News, I'm Adora Namigadde, in Dolton, Illinois. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
