The City of Dolton, Illinois, may resort to eminent domain to acquire the childhood home of Pope Leo XIV, The New York Times reported on Wednesday.
Earlier in the month, house flipper Pawel Radzik was alerted by his real estate agent that the modest property he had purchased in the Chicago suburb of Dolton was the childhood home of Chicago native Robert Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV, the first-ever American-born Pope to lead the world's 1.4 billion Catholics.
Radzik was originally ready to be free of the house for around $200,000, but upon learning of its newfound celebrity status, he said he planned on hanging onto it for a bit. Yet the city officials of Dolton have different ideas.
"The Village of Dolton intends to purchase this home either through direct purchase or through their eminent domain powers," wrote Burton S. Odelson, an attorney for the village of Dolton, in a letter sent to Paramount Realty USA, a real estate auction firm that had already begun collecting bids for the property. "The Village intends to work with the Chicago Archdiocese and other agencies to allow the home to be viewed and visited by the public as a historic site."
Radzik said through his agent Steve Budzik that he is "is excited to have the potential opportunity to work with the church, the archdiocese and the village of Dolton to purchase the property."
The process of selling the home now is in the hands of Paramount Realty which has put the home up for an auction to conclude on June 18. While eminent domain is always an option, Odelson said the process would be expensive and time consuming. Such a process "keeps the home in the news and not the light that the village or the church want," he said adding, "We don't want it to be a controversy; we want it to be a sacred site."
James Morley III ✉
James Morley III is a writer with more than two decades of experience in entertainment, travel, technology, and science and nature.