Week in Review: Chicago Gets a Pope; Senate Race Gets Crowded

Shelby Hawkins | May 9, 2025, 6:10 pm

After a two-day conclave, the Catholic Church has a new leader — and he’s from Chicago.

In a shock announcement, the group of 133 cardinals elected Chicago-born missionary Robert Prevost to be the first American Pope.

Prevost, a 69-year-old member of the Augustinian religious order, will be known as Pope Leo XIV.

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The Trump administration sent a message to Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker when Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem held a press conference in Springfield where she called the state a “firewall against president Trump’s immigration enforcement agenda.”

Meanwhile, Pritzker agreed to appear before the U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee next month to testify about Illinois’ protections for undocumented immigrants.

Mayor Brandon Johnson celebrated a win after the City Council signed off on a landmark affordable housing effort but ran into a wall of pushback over reported moves to install a new leader at CPS.

GUESTS:

Brandon Pope, WCIU-TV | @BPopeTV

Justin Laurence, Crain’s Chicago Business | @jus10chi

Alice Yin, Chicago Tribune | @byaliceyin

Katrina Pham, Borderless Magazine | @KatrinaPham_