Dolton residents and officials say they hope a hometown hero elected pope will go a long way toward reversing the village’s tarnished image.
Dan Lee, a longtime Dolton resident, said Robert Francis Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV, brings a new-found pride. Lee has lived in the community since 1989.
“This is a 180-degree turn from what we’re used to,” Lee said Friday. “I’m looking forward to some positive scrutiny that this can bring.”
The village has suffered after years of alleged corruption among village mayors past and more recently Tiffany Henyard, who was tossed out of office with the most recent election.
Lee said he believed the selection of Prevost as pope could help bring businesses to Dolton, which is now the focus of attention.
“It’s not about anything crazy, it’s totally positive,” he said.
Edward “Ed” Steave, elected trustee after losing his bid in 2023 for reelection, said being the pope’s hometown can only bring positive light.
“We’ve been known for so many bad things and now we have this positive news,” Steave said Friday.
He also said the election of Prevost could boost tourism, as people from outside the village come to see where he grew up.
“People are coming out now,” Steave said.
Steave said the eyes of the world are now on Dolton, especially because it was assumed an American-born pope was unlikely.
“With the mess we’ve been in the last few years, this is a sign of good things to come,” he said. “We’ll take all the good news we can get.”
“We were in the spotlight for the wrong things,” Steave said. “Hopefully the pope will make a trip here and meet with the mayor.”
Pope’s former church
One of the places tied to that hope is the shuttered St. Mary of the Assumption parish, located on the far South Side of Chicago and bordering Dolton, where the pope’s family once worshiped.
Former and current south suburban residents returned to the parish Friday, revisiting a space they knew in their youth and taking in its ties to the new pope with a sense of awe.
During the parish’s heyday, 83-year-old Joe Hemingway recalls how the church would be packed with people during services. Hemingway, who grew up in Riverdale, said many of his friends attended the school directly behind the parish. Prevost was also a student at the school.
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Roxanne Green approaches the front doors of the former St. Mary of the Assumption Church on May 8, 2025, in Chicago. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)
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Roxanne Green approaches the front doors of the former St. Mary of the Assumption Church on May 8, 2025, in Chicago. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)
Laura Fazio, a Dolton resident who moved to the village at age 2 in the 1960s, fondly remembers attending St. Mary’s as a child. She envisions a future where people like Joe, drawn by the parish’s historical significance and its ties to the pope, will continue to visit.
Fazio said with the parish and the pope’s former house becoming attractions, Dolton can transform into a destination that not only draws visitors but also reshapes how people perceive the community.
“We were negative for so long, but I feel that there’s a positivity now because of the new people,” Fazio said. “And with the pope being from here I think it’s really going to have a good effect.”
Fazio said she plans to visit Pope Leo XIV’s childhood home on 141st Place, as well as the parish.
“I always wondered what it looked like inside, because from the outside it looks fine,” Fazio said. “I thought maybe people would break the stained glass windows.”
Lottie Maria Tyson, who works at the Dolton Public Library, recalls what the town was like when she first moved there in 1987. While much has changed over the years, she believes Dolton isn’t as bad as it’s often portrayed.
“It’s not a bad situation now, but it could be better,” Tyson said.
She remains optimistic that with new leadership and positive influences, like the pope’s connection, the town will move in a more positive direction.
Still, she remembers when Dolton was a vibrant place for families to raise children, with thriving businesses such as Red Lobster, The Original Pancake House, Baker’s Square and Ponderosa Steakhouse.
Pat Kenerson, a Dolton resident since the 1980s, said she hopes the pope’s roots will inspire a more positive view. When she first moved to Dolton, it was a majority white town but over the years it has become predominantly Black, she said.
While she welcomed the diversity brought by the demographic shift, she said the town’s leadership in recent years has painted Dolton in a negative light.
As a result, morale has suffered and the town is in need of a positive shift, Dolton resident Myra Rogers said.
“I’m hoping with the new mayor and the new pope, we can get some things changed,” Rogers said.
After living in Dolton for 32 years, Sharon White was elated to hear the new pope is a native of the village. However, she has seen the town change over time with businesses leaving, property values declining and the downtown, including the largely vacant former Value Village strip center, now largely shuttered.
Still, White remains hopeful for revitalization, envisioning Dolton as a tourist destination with the pope’s former home and parish drawing visitors.
“It’s going to make everything a lot better,” White said. “This is going to enhance our property value, because people will probably want to live here, and this may become a tourist area. Maybe he’ll take his house where he used to live and make it a landmark.”
Famous residents
Noted journalist and film critic Richard Roeper lamented on social media that he had been knocked down a notch on Wikipedia’s listing of notable Dolton natives, calling it a “Classic Pope power move.”
Roeper grew up in the south suburb and, along with Roger Ebert, did “The Movies” with Roger Ebert after Gene Siskel’s death.
The list is alphabetical and lists musician Ronnie Baker Brooks in the top position, along with former NBA player Kevin Duckworth and actress Jane Lynch.
A standout player at Dolton’s Thornridge High School, Duckworth’s fans would wear duck hats to games to show their support.
Roeper does, in the alphabetical listing, come one spot ahead of former Dolton Mayor Bill Shaw, who was a state senator for many years.
Although political enemies and former employees accused Shaw of corruption and abusing his mayoral office, he was never charged with any wrongdoing. He had broken racial barriers in 1997 when he became Dolton’s first Black mayor and went on to defeat challengers in two campaigns for reelection.
