When Cardinal Robert Prevost of south suburban Dolton became Pope Leo XIV in May, excited Chicagoans could hardly believe the first American pope in church history was homegrown — and a White Sox fan at that.

Conservative Catholics across the country could hardly believe it, either. The powerful Catholic right had campaigned for a traditionalist who would break from the late Pope Francis. Instead, they got a centrist with deep roots in Latin America whom Laura Loomer, among other conservative firebrands, instantly denounced as a “woke, Marxist pope.”

Now President Donald Trump’s administration is taking aim at Pope Leo’s hometown, pledging to use federal forces to clear Chicago of its heavily Hispanic undocumented.

Tens of thousands of those migrants are devout Catholics. Among foreign-born Hispanics in the U.S., more than half identify as Catholic, according to the Pew Research Center. They make up a big part of regular churchgoers at Catholic Mass in Chicago every weekend, and their children help to populate the city’s network of Catholic schools.

In Chicago, the church has provided housing, food, clothing, legal aid and other essential resources to undocumented migrants through its ministries and the Catholic Charities of Chicago. Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago has taken a public stance against mass deportations, and local priests regularly speak out in support of migrants.

But that’s Chicago. Priests and church leaders are primarily focused on the concerns of their flock. Pope Leo, as head of the Catholic Church, sets the tone for the church across the globe. We’re not arguing that the church should engage in partisan politics — far from it. But we do think it’s worth watching to see how Leo engages with this issue, which is so personal for Chicago Catholics.

For our part, this page upholds the president’s right to enforce immigration law, though we regret the harsh methods being deployed and acknowledge that Trump’s approach has left America deeply divided.

Much as America is divided, so is the Catholic Church in America, but it increasingly leans conservative. As a group, Catholics backed Trump over Kamala Harris. And Pope Leo appears to be walking a fine line to avoid further division. Just as no two people need the same spiritual medicine, so to speak, church members each have unique political perspectives.

The upshot for Chicago’s Catholic churches, sadly in our view, is likely to be plenty of room to spread out in the pews and smaller class sizes at the schools, as members of the flock react to deportation fears. The church has depended on immigration to keep its numbers up.

As we’ve written before, we understand that houses of worship can’t serve two masters — God and partisan politics.

That said, we also watch closely the things that most affect Chicago. One of those right now is immigration.

We suspect Pope Leo is watching, too. And probably worried about the impact on the church in his hometown.

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