CBS Chicago Vault: Pope John Paul II enthralls Chicagoans on 1979 visit
Before last week, the highlight of recent Chicago history involving a pope dated back more than 45 years.
Pope John Paul II visited Chicago in October 1979, about a year after he was elected. The Archdiocese of Chicago called John Paul II's visit "an extraordinary event which saw an outpouring of devotion and excitement throughout the city" — and not just for Roman Catholics.
As the Chicago Archdiocese notes, Pope John Paul II was not the first pope to visit the United States — Pope Paul VI visited in 1965, but only went to New York City. John Paul II had been to Chicago before too, having visited Chicago's Polish neighborhoods as Cardinal Karol Józef Wojtyła in 1969 and 1976.
But no pope had visited Chicago while in office before.
Pope John Paul II arrived in the U.S. on Monday, Oct. 1, 1979 — touching down in Boston, and stopping in New York, Philadelphia, and Des Moines before arriving in Chicago on Thursday, Oct. 4. CBS Chicago was there for it all, with live Channel 2 News team coverage that is preserved in our video library.
Despite cold temperatures in Chicago that day, a crowd of people gathered at O'Hare International Airport to await the pope's arrival. A crowd as many as six people deep also assembled along Milwaukee Avenue at Raven Street in the heavily Polish Norwood Park East neighborhood ahead of the arrival of the first Polish pope's motorcade.
"The holiness aspect of it is being felt by this crowd," Channel 2 reporter Bob Wallace said as he reported live at the scene. "A lot of people—there's a lot of pride about being Polish, a lot of pride about being Catholic here."
John Paul II was received by Gov. Jim Thompson and Mayor Jane Byrne when he did indeed arrive at O'Hare. The crowd assembled on Milwaukee Avenue was as thrilled as expected when the pope's motorcade passed.
John Paul II went on to Holy Name Cathedral for a prayer service. Luciano Pavarotti sang "Ave Maria" for the occasion, which Channel 2 carried live.
The pope then had dinner at the Cardinal's Residence, at 1555 N. State Pkwy. in the Gold Coast, and made a stop to address more than 1,000 Catholic religious brothers at St. Peter's Church at 110 W. Madison St. downtown, the Archdiocese recalled.
The following day, Pope John Paul II visited Providence of God Church, a predominantly Mexican parish at 717 W. 18th St. in the Pilsen neighborhood, where the Archdiocese notes the crowd cheered as he spoke to them in Spanish.
The pope went on to Five Holy Martyrs Church, at 4327 S. Richmond St. in the then-predominantly Polish Brighton Park neighborhood, toured predominantly Black Chicago parishes on the city's South Side, and visited Quigley Preparatory Seminary South at 7740 S. Western Ave.—the present-day site of St. Rita of Cascia High School.
The culmination of the pope's visit was a 3 p.m. open-air mass at the Petrillo Band Shell at Grant Park. The pope was running half an hour late, and by the time he arrived, more than 1 million people had amassed. He took the opportunity to celebrate the diversity of Chicago and the unity that developed as people came together:
"And so, looking at you, I see people who have thrown their destinies together and now write a common history. Different as you are, you have come to accept each other, at times imperfectly and even to the point of subjecting each other to various forms of discrimination: at times only after a long period of misunderstanding and rejection; even now still growing in understanding and appreciation of each other's differences. In expressing gratitude for the many blessings you have received, you also become aware of the duty you have towards the less favored in your own midst and in the rest of the world—a duty of sharing, of loving, of serving. As a people, you recognize God as the source of your many blessings, and you are open to his love and his law."
John Paul II also gave Communion to 150 people chosen from the six Vicarates of the Chicago Archdiocese, while more than 600 priests and deacons administered the Eucharist to the full crowd.
The Archdiocese noted that the altar used for the Grant Park mass was built specially at a cost of more than $200,000.
John Paul II returned to Holy Name Cathedral afterward and attended a concert by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir George Solti, the Archdiocese recalled. He then took off and left Chicago for Washington, D.C., before heading back to Rome.
Pope John Paul II remained in office until his death in 2005. He made more visits to the U.S., but did not make another trip to Chicago after that 1979 visit.
Pope Benedict XVI made one visit to the U.S. in 2008. Pope Francis visited the U.S. in 2015 — stopping in Washington, D.C., New York City, and Philadelphia, and drawing a massive crowd that assembled hours ahead of time just to see the popemobile pass by in New York's Central Park. But neither pope visited Chicago on those trips.
But in a surprise to many on Thursday, May 8, 2025, Chicago native Robert Prevost became Pope Leo XIV. Pope Leo was born in Chicago, grew up in south suburban Dolton, and attended the Catholic Theological Union of Chicago in city's Hyde Park neighborhood. He also taught at Mendel Catholic High School on Chicago's Roseland neighborhood and Tolentine College in south suburban Olympia Fields.
The new pope, of course, has yet to visit Chicago as pope. But many are excited at the prospect that he will.
