Pope Leo XIV's boyhood home in Dolton was on the market until Thursday. What comes next for the house?
When home rehabber Paweł Radzik bought a modest, three-bedroom ranch-style house in south suburban Dolton last year for $66,000, he saw it as a chance to do what he does best: make some upgrades and turn around and sell the property for a profit.
What Radzik did not know at the time of his purchase, however, was the home's divinely inspired origins.
The house, on East 141st Place in Dolton, was the boyhood home of Robert Prevost — now known to the world as Pope Leo XIV. Prevost's parents — Louis, a school administrator who died in 1997, and Mildred, a librarian who died in 1990 — had owned and lived in the brick house for decades. Louis Prevost sold the home in 1996 for $58,000.
The future pontiff lived in the house full-time until going off to a Michigan seminary for high school in 1969 and, following that, to college at Villanova University in 1973. His parents continued to live there, making the dwelling something of a home base for the young priest-in-training.
Now, with Prevost voted to become the first-ever pope from the United States, East 141st Place in Dolton has a landmark unlike no other in this country.
Needless to say, the excitement over the home's prior inhabitant has sparked some interest from buyers. Radzik, who is based in Homer Glen, first listed the house in January for $219,000. He cut his asking price to $205,000 later that month and then to $199,900 in February.
Radzik confirmed to the Tribune that in the wake of the announcement, he immediately received some offers for the house. However, he decided to take the home off the market Thursday, after Leo XIV's selection and word got out that he and his family had resided there.
What comes next for the house remains to be seen. However, its provenance has given rise to speculation that a buyer might pay a premium to own a home with such a unique prior resident. Whether local officials would permit the conversion of the house to a museum commemorating Leo XIV, for example, also is unclear.
At the moment, Radzik is cautiously evaluating potential opportunities involving the home.
'I got a little lucky, eh?' Radzik said Friday. 'I don't know what I want to do — I gotta play it smart. I have a few options. I gotta see what is the best option for me. I gotta do it smart. I'm not in a rush to sell. I want to take it slow.'
A Catholic himself, Radzik immigrated to the U.S. from Poland in 2006. He said the house 'was in pretty bad shape when I bought it.'
'I would say 80% of it is new — new flooring, new cabinets, new plumbing, new electrical, new kitchen,' he said.
Asked if the house contains any remnants from the Prevost family's ownership, Radzik said: 'It's hard to say. It was (so many) years ago (that they owned it). I would say zero.'
Radzik wasn't the only one surprised by the pontiff's family's onetime ownership of the Dolton house. Guillermina Terrell of Homewood owned the home with her husband from 2018 until 2024, when they sold it to Radzik. While Terrell and her husband never lived in the house — the couple bought it for use by her mother-in-law, who now has passed away — Terrell was stunned to learn of the ranch style-home's prior inhabitant.
'You're kidding. Oh my God, that's amazing,' Terrell said when informed that it was the pope's boyhood home. 'OK, I'm just mind-blown.'
Like Radzik, Terrell also is Catholic, and she noted that she has two priests in her family.
'I can't wait to tell my grandparents, because they are very devout Catholics,' she said.
Terrell said she saw no markers to indicate such a prominent prior resident.
'I mean, I can't say for sure that it was unique. It was bigger than it looked from the outside,' she said.
The Terrells bought the home in 2018 from a bank that had foreclosed on it from the family that bought it from the Prevost family. However, Terrell said she now feels 'like an inner peace' about having owned a home once inhabited by the 267th pope.
Dolton hopes ties to Pope Leo XIV will burnish town's image and spur growthAlthough church properties are exempt from property taxes, homes of future pontiffs are not necessarily blessed in that way. The Dolton house had a $7,235 property tax bill in the 2023.
Built in 1949, the house has two bathrooms, recessed lighting in the living room, a formal dining room, a center gallery staircase and a kitchen with a breakfast bar, custom white cabinetry, granite countertops, stainless-steel appliances and multi-level lighting. Other features include a full bath with a Jacuzzi tub on the first floor, a second full bathroom upstairs and a finished basement with a laundry room and exterior access. The house has new porches, new siding, new doors and a new garage roof.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Vox
4 hours ago
- Vox
Why is Gen Z getting more religious? We asked them.
is the host of Explain It to Me, your hotline for all your unanswered questions. She joined Vox in 2022 as a senior producer and then as host of The Weeds, Vox's policy podcast. A parishioner prays during a visit to the Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago on May 8, 2025, after learning that Pope Leo XIV, who was born in Chicago, had been named as first American leader of the Catholic Church.A couple weeks ago, I did something I try to do at least once a month: I went to the church I'm a member of in person instead of online. Growing up, church was a regular part of my life, and not just on Sundays. My father is a pastor, so it was common to spend a weekday evening doing my homework in my dad's office, music from choir rehearsal pouring in as I finished whatever worksheet was due the next day. It's an institution that shaped me: It's where I made a lot of friends, it gave me my first taste of public speaking, and since pastors in my denomination are moved from church to church, it also determined what city I lived in and where I went to school. When I was a kid, attendance was obviously less in my control. If I didn't go to church on Sunday, that meant no hanging with friends the following week. 'If you can't make time for the Lord, how can you make time for something else?' was my mother's refrain. The choice is mine now. I enjoy hearing the songs that were the soundtrack for so much of my childhood. I like saying hello to the people I see week after week. I like the Black liberation theology interpretation of the Bible that I hear every Sunday. And my experience, it turns out, is not unique. As we discussed in the most recent episode of Explain It to Me, Vox's call-in podcast, Gen Z has been finding religion these last few years. It's a phenomenon that reverses some recent trends — and one for which experts are trying to find an explanation. The changing face of religion in America It's a development that Ryan Burge has been keeping his eye on. He was a Baptist pastor for 20 years, and now he's an associate professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University. Burge stepped away from ministry because the attendance in his church was declining: Members were aging, and there weren't a lot of young people to keep it alive. 'It's almost like every year, you expect [the share of Christians in the country] to be one point lower than the prior year, or two points lower than the prior year,' Burge told me. 'Every generation is less Christian than the prior generation, going all the way back to the early 1900s. And what's fascinating is that the drop is very consistent.' According to Burge, Catholicism is seeing a huge rise in young men. Now, though, Burge says that not only is that decline tapering off, but 'on some metrics, this data says that young people are actually more likely to be weekly religious attenders than millennials are. This is huge — we've never seen that before. We always assumed religion's going to continue to decline, and it doesn't look like that decline is continuing.' When we asked Explain It to Me listeners about their own experiences with spirituality, we got a wide array of responses. 'I did not grow up going to church. My family never went to church when I was younger, but I always had questions and felt like something bigger was out there,' one listener told us. 'So as soon as I could drive myself, I went to church and started looking for those answers.' Another — a self-described 'cradle Catholic' who has made her way back to religion — called in to say that, 'I understand why a lot of young people are actually going back to religion. It's because there's no other place to turn to in order to see what's wrong with life.' Why is religion making a comeback? So what's behind this uptick? The hypotheses are legion. 'To be a young person is to rebel against your parents,' Burge says. 'In my generation it was like, 'Oh, I grew up very hardcore Catholic or evangelical and so I became an atheist.' That was the most rebellious thing you can do. But imagine if you are a second-generation atheist or third-generation atheist. You know what the most rebellious thing you can do? It's to be Orthodox Christian or be Catholic.' Gender could also be at play. Through the years, more women have been regular church attendees than men, but we're not seeing that with Gen Z. According to Burge, Catholicism is seeing a huge rise in young men. 'I wonder if politics might be driving this religious divide among young people. Women had Time's Up and Me Too. … I think a lot of men feel like they're being overlooked. And if you go to a Catholic church, it's one of the few places in society where men have a privileged position in that hierarchy.' That's a sentiment that was echoed recently during a young adult group at St. Dominic's Catholic Church in San Francisco. In the group, men outnumber women. Father Patrick Verney, who runs the group, acknowledges the shift. 'This is very different from how it's always been in the past. In the past it's always been more women than men,' he said. 'This particular trend that you're talking about is unique in the history of humanity in a certain respect, certainly in the history of Christianity.'
Yahoo
20 hours ago
- Yahoo
‘Long and difficult process,' Pastor speaks on restoration efforts after fire at Catholic church
Restoration efforts are underway after a historic Catholic church caught fire last month. >>PHOTOS: Smoke, flames pour from large fire at local Catholic church As News Center 7 previously reported, a fire broke out at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Maria Stein on May 29. Father Ken Schnipke addressed the future of the church in his homily to parishioners. TRENDING STORIES: 'One more is too many;' Family remembers woman killed in motorcycle crash Local high school secures 1st state softball title, finishes with perfect record Man dead after shooting at billiards hall in Ohio 'While the damage is severe, the restoration specialists were also hopeful that more could be salvaged than what appears,' Schnipke said. 'They are also hopeful that, with the way the church roof collapsed inside and the spire tilted south, the integrity of the walls may not have been compromised.' [DOWNLOAD: Free WHIO-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] Schnipke added it will be a 'long and difficult process.' While the church is being restored, Schnipke said masses will likely be held at Precious Blood. He voiced his appreciation for those around the country who have supported the church. 'In a way, we are reaching out to the ends of the earth as the ends of the earth reach out to help us. And as Archbishop Casey said, that makes us church,' he said. [SIGN UP: WHIO-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
Yahoo
21 hours ago
- Yahoo
Reader wonders where Rochester's traditional baccalaureate went
Jun. 9—Dear Answer Man. Do the Rochesters schools still do baccalaureate? If not, when did the practice end and why? Growing up in Rochester, it was a tradition back in my day. The religious service was paired with graduation — I'm a 1977 Mayo High School grad — that took place mid-week prior to graduation ceremonies. The baccalaureate program back then was held at Mayo Civic Auditorium and all three high schools attended (Mayo, John Marshall and Lourdes — this was pre-Century, I think) took part. The students wore their graduation caps and gowns and even the high school bands played for the ceremony. — We All Need Prayer. Dear Prayer, First, the big joint baccalaureate service is a thing of the past. Not that no one does it. I reached out to both Rochester Public School and Rochester Catholic Schools on this one. Let's start with Lourdes High School Principal Mary Spring. Spring said, yes, Lourdes still holds a baccalaureate service each year, COVID notwithstanding. The Catholic high school makes a point to send its graduates away with a little help from the Lord. As for when Lourdes stopped pairing its service with the public high schools, Spring did not know for certain. However, Rochester School Board Vice Chair Julie Workman previously worked in the district as a teacher when these services were still offered. Here's what Workman recalls: * The baccalaureate included students from Lourdes, JM, Mayo and — once it was built — Century high schools, and was held in late May each year. Since Workman started teaching at JM in 1982, the joint — or all-city — ceremonies extended into the 1980s. * For JM and Mayo choirs and orchestras, the performance and attendance were part of their final grade. The musicians and singers rehearsed on the day of the baccalaureate, which meant those students missed a half day of school. * Rochester's faith community determined who the adult religious speaker would be for the service. Though, in the 1970s and early 1980s, it was strictly a Christian church service and the hymns and message reflected that. As Rochester became more diverse religiously — or just less religious in general — changes started to come. But other roadblocks popped up as well. For example, as the baccalaureate grew each year, there wasn't enough room for the 200-plus orchestra students. Rehearsals for students from different schools were hard since they all had to learn to perform together in one afternoon. All this happened at the end of May, a hectic time for students and staff. Later, a survey of music students showed many were either indifferent or opposed to participation. Some objected for religious reasons, though if they did, they were excused with a note from a parent, Workman said. Then, there was the fact public school funds were being used to support a religious service — bus transportation, purchase of music books. Though teachers were not compensated for the extra duty assignment. Workman said, as a teacher she stopped participating in 2002, and she believes the whole thing ended after 2004. The district finally agreed that music students couldn't be coerced into attending, with many only doing so because it was part of their grade. Workman said after the district bowed out, SEMYO and the Honors Choir (not district-affiliated) provided the music for a year or two, and the Area Council of Churches organized it. However, it was still difficult to get enough students from SEMYO and the Honors Choir to participate since a large number of them were RPS students. Eventually, Workman said, the people who tried to run it gave up, and it just faded away as part of RPS's graduation festivities, though, as noted above, RCS still holds a baccalaureate each year. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to play some Beetles songs to get "Pomp and Circumstance" to stop playing in my head. Send questions to Answer Man at answerman@ .
