Chicago suburb-area town planning to seize Pope Leo XIV's childhood home

Dolton, a town near Chicago, plans to seize Pope Leo XIV's childhood home via eminent domain and work with the Archdiocese to preserve it as a historic site, officials said in a letter Tuesday

By Miranda Davis

 

A Chicago-area town plans to seize control of Pope Leo XIV’s childhood home, just days after the current owner put the property up for auction.  

The law firm representing Dolton, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of downtown Chicago, sent a letter Tuesday to the auction company saying that the village intends to take possession of the property through eminent domain. Officials plan to work with the Archdiocese of Chicago to establish it as a historic site. 

 

The notice comes less than a week after Paramount Realty USA placed the three-bedroom house for auction with a starting bid of $250,000, capitalizing on a surge of interest following the election of Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost as pope earlier this month. 

 

 

“Please inform any prospective buyers that their ‘purchase’ may only be temporary since the Village intends to begin the eminent domain process very shortly,” Burton Odelson, the village’s attorney, wrote in the letter. 

 

Under eminent domain, municipal governments can take over private property for public use, such as for railroads and utilities. The real estate firms handling the auction and village officials didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. 

 

The auction was set to run through June 18. “Own a Sacred Piece of History,” the listing touts. 

 

Born in Chicago, Pope Leo has close ties to the area’s Catholic community, having attended Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, where he received a master of divinity degree in 1982.

 

The property was purchased for $66,000 last year by a real estate investor who renovated the property and listed it earlier this year.