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.

This morning, the city of Chicago — famously known as the City of Big Shoulders — is embracing one of the biggest honors in its history: the election of one of its own as the first American pope.