The church's owner hopes the papal link can help efforts to save and reuse the parish buildings on the Far South Side.

After blessing the faithful, he entered the chapel that houses the Marian icon, traditionally attributed to St. Luke, and, ...

a downtown office worker who attended Monday Mass at St. Mary’s Cathedral. “He was accepting of everyone regardless of your background or of your necessity. He treated everyone the same.

Following the Mass, Francis' coffin was transferred via a much-watched procession to the basilica of St. Mary Major for a private ... "simple" tomb in the ground "without particular ornamentation ...