Writer Walks Where Pope Once Walked

EDITOR’S NOTE: Andy Chandler has worked with Sagamore News Media on a few occasions. His talent in photography and writing speak for themselves. After an American was named the head of the Catholic Church for the first time in history, Andy went on a pilgrimage. The following is what he shared.

Why I do it. 2025.05.08

Riverdale, Illinois.

Sometimes you can get an idea of someone by walking the same sidewalks they walked, seeing the light through the same windows they looked out of. During my time as a presidential history explorer, sometimes learning about their environment gives an insight into what they will be like.

Dolton and Riverdale neighborhoods are nestled deep on the southside of Chicago. If you ask a resident in their community where they are from, they will tell you they are from Dolton/Riverdale. If they are traveling out of state, the same person may tell you that they are from Chicago.

I took a walk from the house Robert Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV, grew up in to his childhood church that was the his azimuth to Rome. I was trying to stretch my legs after my two and a half hour drive, and trying to make sense out of this new Pontiff who is now the spiritual father of 1.2 billion people around the world.

I’ll admit I was dubious about the election of a Pontiff from the United States. Perhaps this is too much power concentrated in a country that has established itself politically, philosophically and religiously on the basis of diametrically opposed tension? A leader born and raised in a culture where harmony is found through tragedy or dominance?

I turned onto Indiana Avenue, past the rows of houses that all looked the same. This was, in fact, a community established by mostly blue collar factory assembly workers. Immigrants either first or second generation from Europe. Pope Leo’s parents Louis and Mildred moved here shortly after the war.

I walked the dusty sidewalk as the sun started to cast a shadow, and was about five minutes from the house when I heard the unmistakeable “cling cling cling” south of a crossing arm at a railway crossing. A loud oncoming horn warning those nearby to be clear. “Everybody move” it seemed to blare. I wonder if a young Robert Prevost had once stood where I now was, counting the train cars as they left the many factories and plants that dotted the landscape.

I kept walking. I looked around and paused. Ah, the two twin constants of the American dream: to my right, a shipping and assembly center, to my left, suburban housing. Sadly, many of those jobs have gone. It reminded me much of Anderson, when the vehicle plant left. Urban desolation

Cross the second set of tracks, turn right. Past a row of houses and an assembly plant. The mixing of houses and assembly plants along a row, from above and on the ground reminded me of the lines and dashes of a Morse Code message, “we were once the thriving center STOP”.

I found myself at the front of the old St. Mary of the Assumption. The hum/whish of passing cars was only interrupted by the ratcheting clack of a bicycle chain. Now this was a lot that was slightly overgrow. Across from it is a funeral home, and public housing. 

The owner of the now abandoned property walked out and ushered me and some reporters inside and once inside, I stood. So unassuming, If I was going to write the story of a Pope, this would hardly be the setting for it to begin. However, where he stood, I now stand.

Yes, it’s been nearly 60 years since that young man we now know as Pope Leo XIV took this same route to get to school and to church.

Finishing my walk, I smiled: I think the Cardinals elected someone who wasn’t enamored by the fame of the position. Who wouldn’t be swayed by today’s currents that toss individuals to and fro.

They elected a humble man, the son of a principal and librarian who lived between the tracks.

Andy Chandler is a presidential historian and a museum archivist at Candles Holocaust Museum in Terre Haute and the Ernie Pyle Museum in Dana Indiana. Raised in Taiwan and Haiti as the son of missionaries, Andy graduated from Ball State University with a Masters in classical languages. He now resides in Parke County where he enjoys archery, travel and photography. In March, he became the first person to visit all forty presidential gravesites when he got as close as the public was allowed to Jimmy Carter’s grave in Plains, GA.