In his first days as pope, Leo XIV has struck many as an unassuming man of quiet warmth and deeply rooted identity. A visit to the part of Chicago where the first American Pontiff was raised gives an idea of how he got that way.

The Rev. John T. Pawlikowski served as co-founder and director of the school’s Catholic-Jewish Studies Program and also served four terms on the board of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Never in the history of the Roman Catholic Church has there been an American pope, but now, one name has been coming up as a possible frontrunner. Robert Cardinal Prevost is originally from Chicago, and serves as the head of the church's Dicastery for Bishops.