The Holy C

From Second City to the Vatican City

I’ve lived in Chicago, as I like to tell it, for my entire adult life. I first came here at age 18, fresh out of high school, and was immediately drawn to how funny the people here seemed to be. My own attempts at humor were not always well-received when I was growing up, but I had a healthy appreciation for Steve Martin’s standup comedy albums and I watched Saturday Night Live on a regular basis, so laughter was something I greatly admired. And Chicago is, let’s face it, a place where humor has always been nurtured.

It’s the home of Second City and improv comedy, without which SNL probably wouldn’t have been so successful. It’s the birthplace of Robin Williams, for crying out loud. It’s also where Ferris Bueller had his day off, and the Blues Brothers fulfilled their mission from God. Comedy is in the DNA of this city and I was—and still am—here for it.

So when the College of Cardinals decided to elect the first pope born in the United States today, and that pope was born here in Chicago, you better believe that this town went into overdrive with quips about da Pope and images of the Last Supper including the Chicago Bears Superfans with a spread of all sorts of Chicago delicacies.

Shirts advertising for Malort holy water? Of course.

Pizza was thrown in, and hot dogs too (without any ketchup, of course).

But the overall tenor of the discussion has been along the lines of “Wow, we can claim Michael Jordan, Barack Obama, and now his Holiness too? Talk about your holy trinity, right?”

It’s been an amazing day for my sweet home, and one that I quite honestly wasn’t expecting to ever see. There have been things that I needed to see in this city, and some things I wish I had never seen, but some things just felt like they were beyond the realm of possibility. Today’s events certainly appear to fall into that category, but then variety is the spice of life. At least New York and Miami and all the other American cities can’t claim him as one of theirs.

It’s been a good day today. Surprising, but good. And I like what I’m hearing about him so far. I’m sorely in need of an American leader to feel good about, and if the Catholic church steps up to provide that which the American political system has failed to offer, then I’m not going to turn away from it. It could even be something of a miracle one day.

We’ll have to wait and see how it all turns out but Chicago, I’m grateful to you, as always.