Chicago’s South Side was solidly working class during Pope Leo’s childhood, said Rob Paral, a researcher at the Great Cities Institute at the University of Illinois Chicago. The family attended a South Side church, but they lived in Dolton, a suburb just past the city line.

Thursday’s meme economy was flooded with images of the newly named Pope Leo XIV, born in Chicago with the given name Robert Prevost. There’s a long tradition of humanizing the clergy for laughs, from the satirical bawdy stories published in “The Decameron” in the 14th century all the way to “Sister Act” and “Family Guy.

He is a man formed by his experience in the church of Chicago, especially the south side,’ writes Mark Francis, CSV.