And as £1.4 billion Catholic eyes turn their gaze to the Windy City why all roads have led from sweet Rome Chicago.
Because Cardinal Robert Prevost, or Pope Leo XIV as we now know him, hails from what could now be tagged the Holy City too.
That Chicago of all the cities in the world should be chosen to produce the 267th Pontiff is, of course, God’s calling.
But he has long cast his blessings on the great city of the Mid West since its first French Catholic settlement in the 1690s.
And our new Papa has French blood running through him and Italian and Spanish.
The Holy Ground
We recommend the locally-released documentary Holy Ground for those who want to delve deeper into Chicago Catholicism.
And we are grateful too to Chicago Catholic for helping us see the light.
Better still find yourself in Chicago as we will, God willing, next month.
And will now seek out the Queen of All Saints church in Sauganash.
Where the worshippers have dedicated a stained-glass window to favourite son, Billy Caldwell, the very same Chief Sauganash.
That he has had the thriving southern neighbourhood of Sauganash named for him is testament to his contribution.
Hail to the Chief Sauganash
The son of a Scots-Irishman (all the best people are) and a Mohawk or Shawnee woman Caldwell championed the indigenous tribes.
The Potawatomi people who would populate the Chicago area.
Chicago Catholic marks the year 1833 as pivotal in the church’s story.
When Robert Prevost would have been but a twinkle in his great-grandfather’s eye.
The annus mirabilis 1833 marks the incorporation of Chicago as a town and the creation of its first parish, Old St. Mary’s.
The explosion of Catholic Chicago when because of its positioning in the Mid West it became a transport hub.
And a destination of choice for immigrants from the Old World.
With more parishes built to serve immigrant communities and outlying or daughter parishes.
Sky’s the limit
Chicago has long prided itself as the home of the skyscraper.
And like every other visitor we stand out among the locals for looking up.
But look between the soaring temples to consumerism, hospitality and business.
And you will see another history of Chicago, its ornate steeples.
And perhaps too, St Mary of the Assumption Parish on 137th Street in Riverside in South Chicago.
It may be a shell now of what it was but a stained glass window remains which a young Robert Prevost would have lost himself in.
The boy who would become Pope Leo XIV, the first Pontiff from the USA, now has a rather grander Vatican church from which to worship.
But all roads have led from sweet Rome Chicago