House divided: Who will get Pope Leo's childhood home outside Chicago?
House divided: Who will get Pope Leo's childhood home outside Chicago? There's a growing schism in the first American pope's hometown. At stake is who will take Leo's childhood home and how much it will cost them. An auction for the house closes June 18.
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JD Vance gives Pope Leo a special American gift
Pope Leo XIV was given a Bears jersey by Vice President JD Vance at their first official meeting.
DOLTON, IL – There's a rift growing in the Chicagoland hometown of America's first pope. Not over what baseball team will get his blessing. Or whether the area's anti-ketchup stance could become canon. But over his childhood home.
Pope Leo XIV was born in Chicago in 1955 and grew up in a squat brick house just south of the city in the Village of Dolton, a town that boomed in the post-war era but has become blighted like many Rust Belt towns.
The fate of the little ranch house at 212 E. 141st Pl. where he played priest, however, is up in the air. Local leaders want it for Dolton. The owner wants to auction it off to the highest bidder.
'This isn't just a local purchase, this is a global purchase, a global opportunity,' Steve Budzik, the owner's real estate broker, told USA TODAY. 'We knew if we put it on the open market that might attract the bidder who would be willing to pay the most.'
Paramount Realty, the New York-based company behind the auction, is known for auctioning off the childhood home of President Donald Trump for over $2 million. Other properties it is currently selling include a castle in Pennsylvania appraised at $1.9 million and a Long Island house designed by architect Richard Meier that previously sold for $9.45 million.
Dolton officials are threatening to get a judge to force owner Paweł Radzik to sell them the house. They aim to use it for the village, although they haven't said exactly how. The process of government claiming private property for public use is called eminent domain.
'I can think of no better public use than to preserve the house for the public to see and use so we meet the definition,' Village attorney Burt Odelson told USA TODAY. 'It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for all of us in the United States.'
The Dolton-raised pontiff's election comes as his hometown has experienced a few rough decades amid a loss of manufacturing jobs and a corrupt mayor who racked up massive debts for the village of about 20,000.
People in the village hope Leo's connection to it will spark its resurrection. Dolton's revival would center around the house where then-Robert Francis Prevost learned his faith from his parents and brothers.
'We talk about how he might have been formed by being an Augustinian and a missionary in Peru, but how about as a child of the suburbs,' said Father Stephen Koeke, a University of Notre Dame professor. 'His upbringing looks like that of so many Americans and if he was able to grow up in this context and pursue holiness . . . Well, maybe we too can do it.'
Resurrection of Dolton: Can Pope Leo XIV bring glory back to his hometown?
The tussle over the leader of the Catholic church's childhood home presents a uniquely American clash, according to legal experts and scholars, over the nation's near sacrosanct beliefs in property rights enshrined by the Constitution.
'Here in the United States, we have very strong feelings about the right to own and possess property and do with it what you want,' said Allison K. Bethel, a clinical law professor at the University of Illinois Chicago. 'The power to just come in and take it away runs counter to that. But when you think about it, doing so also goes all the way back to taking property from the Native Americans. This is how we do it here in America.'
Auctioneer Paramount Realty opened up the house to bids on May 15, according to Budzik. Bidding closes on June 18, according to the listing. The minimum bid is $250,000.
What's a pope's house worth?
The first American pope's childhood home had been on the market for about four months at $219,000 when Leo became pope. Budzik took down the listing within days.
The future pope's parents bought the house when it was completed in 1949 and held onto it until 1996, according to Cook County property records. Leo lived there until moving away for high school to a seminary school in Michigan.
Radzik bought the 1,050 square-foot house for $66,000 in 2024, according to Cook County property records. It looks like countless others that went up across the nation in the postwar era, including a nearly identical squat brick home about a block away that Budzik listed for $175,000. But he remodeled the interior into a three-bedroom, three-bathroom home.
The remodeling means the interior looks nothing like it did when Leo lived there, dissauding Radzik from wanting to be responsible for turning it into a museum.
'It sounds great in theory,' said Budzik. 'But I said, 'Paweł, are you going to do the research and find what cabinets were popular in the 1960s?' It would probably cost double what it took him to renovate it to 2025 standards.'
Budzik said that he hopes a buyer would honor Leo's legacy.
'A truly one-of-a-kind opportunity—this beautifully updated home isn't just a charming 3-bedroom, 3-bathroom residence…it's the childhood home of Pope Leo XIV, the first
American Pope in history,' reads the brochure which includes Leo's seal. 'Pope Leo XIV's journey from this humble neighborhood to the Vatican is a testament to faith, perseverance, and purpose. Now, you have the rare chance to own a tangible piece of his inspiring legacy.'
Can Dolton claim the house?
Dolton's path to claiming eminent domain over the house will be difficult, according to legal experts.
The concept of eminent domain dates back to Ancient Rome, according to University of California Irvine professor Alejandro E. Camacho. Crucially, governments have to prove that the private property will serve a public purpose. Typical cases in the U.S. involve situations where government says it needs a particular property to build a road or park.
Dolton will have a hard time meeting the standard of public purpose because the village only decided to go after the property in response to the news about its connection to Leo, according to Camacho.
A judge granting Dolton eminent domain power would create a 'slippery slope' for future eminent domain cases, Camacho said.
'The reason they seem to be saying is 'The pope's home is valuable and we want in on that action,'' Camacho said. 'Why wouldn't the city just take every piece of property that's valuable and flip it?'
Leo's status as pope only complicates the issue in a country where the government is not supposed to endorse a particular religion.
'If it was Abe Lincoln's house maybe you could argue there's federal laws implicated but the historical value is wrapped up so much in an individual religion,' Camacho said. 'I don't know if it runs afoul but it's at least worth saying it raises questions.'
What happened with other popes' childhood homes?
Other papal childhood homes have sparked the flourishing of unknown small towns, according to a USA TODAY survey of Leo's predecessors. The feeling in Dolton that Leo's childhood home could potentially bring an economic boom to the area is borne out in the hometowns of other popes.
Wadowice, the town of around 17,500 in Poland where Pope John Paul II was raised, has benefited massively, according to Piotr Polak, a guide at the museum in John Paul's childhood home.
'There are at least a dozen of Wadowice-like towns in southern Poland,' Polak told USA TODAY from Poland. 'None of them is visited by hundreds of thousands of tourists from around the globe.'
Polak said the museum in the tenement where then-Karol Wojtyła grew up opened in 1984. Around 200,000 people visit the museum annually, according to Polak.
'Without the figure of JP2 there would be next to no one from outside the local region here,' said the guide. 'One of the biggest blessings the town has is the fact that Karol Wojtyła had spent the first 18 years of his life here.'
Pilgrims began arriving at the tenement almost immediately when John Paul became pope in 1978, according to Polak. A local priest helped the family find another place to live. Eventually the town and local church leaders then converted the tenement into a museum and a Polish businessman bought the building and donated it to the church.
What Dolton wants
Pilgrims from around the country began arriving at Leo's old house in Dolton when the Chicagoland pontiff was announced on May 8.
For those in Leo's old neighborhood it came as a complete surprise when they saw the beatific looks on their faces as they regarded the little brick house in the middle of the block.
'This was a house that was not at all peaceful,' said nextdoor neighbor Donna Sagna, recalling days when the area was a hotbed of drug dealing and violence.
Sagna, 50, hopes the pope's house can be the start of a completely different outlook for the block and the people of Dolton.
The little town has struggled immensely since Leo's exodus.
Dolton had a dozen murders in 2023, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's office. About 20,000 people live in the village, meaning the homicide rate is about 10 times the national average. According to census data, the average income in the area is under $30,000. About a fifth of the population lives in poverty.
'I want to see this as a landmark with programs for the community, for people who are struggling,' said Sagna. 'I'd like to see that kind of change. Then the violence will come down.'
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