Pope childhood home up for sale to the highest bidder, but there's a snag
Pope Leo XIV’s childhood home is being put up for auction, but the Village of Dolton, Illinois, is looking at ways to become its new owner.
The current owner recently decided to make the home located in the Chicago suburb available for purchase via an upcoming auction. Bidding for the small brick home, with a reserve price of $250,000, will be open until the late afternoon on June 18, according to the real estate auction firm Paramount Realty USA’s website.
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It has three bedrooms, with 1,050 square feet of living space, the listing with iCandy Realty showed.
The current owner originally put it up for sale in January after buying it in May 2024 for a small sum of $66,000 and renovating it.
Its listing was removed on May 8 — the day that Pope Leo XIV, whose given name is Robert Prevost, was chosen to become the new and first American pontiff — while the owner mulled what to do with the property, the New York Post reported at the time. It had been priced at $199,000.
News that Pope Leo’s childhood home was heading to the auction block subsequently emerged last week.
The Village of Dolton has since told Paramount Realty USA it "intends to purchase this home either through direct purchase or through their eminent domain powers," Fox News Digital reported.
FOX Business correspondent Kelly Saberi reported a letter sent by the village to the auction house said to "please inform any prospective buyers that their ‘purchase’ may only be temporary since the Village intends to begin the eminent domain process very shortly."
"The attorney for the village said that despite its now historical significance and people coming from around the world pray before the home, touch the home of the first American pope, the home will be acquired by the village at a fair market value for the area and not an inflated price," Saberi reported.
It wants to make Pope Leo’s childhood home a historic site due to its connection to the Catholic Church’s 267th pope.
Pope Leo was appointed the pontiff to succeed the late Pope Francis after four votes of the church’s cardinals.
The Chicago-area native had been a cardinal for over a year and a half prior to becoming pope. He first became a priest in 1982.
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He has significant ties to Peru, where he served for many years, including as the Bishop of Chiclayo, The Associated Press reported.
He also spent some time in Chicago during his clerical career in various positions, according to the College of Cardinals Report.
Fox News Digital’s Louis Casiano contributed to this report.