Caroline Kubzansky

4 days ago | swoknews.com | Caroline Kubzansky

CHICAGO — Above the door of the church in the last blocks of Chicago, the Virgin Mary still stands with her arms wide open. The double doors beneath the statue’s feet are shut, but a disintegrating wooden side door swings freely, leading to a set of stairs with chipped paint scattered on them.

4 days ago | chicagotribune.com | Caroline Kubzansky

Above the door of the church in the last blocks of Chicago, the Virgin Mary still stands with her arms wide open. The double doors beneath the statue’s feet are shut, but a disintegrating wooden side door swings freely, leading to a set of stairs with chipped paint scattered on them. Above, a pool of blue light from a stained-glass window illuminates a balcony where the St. Mary of the Assumption Church choir — including a young boy who would later become the first American-born pope — once sang.

6 days ago | yahoo.com | Angie Leventis Lourgos |Gregory Pratt |Carolyn Stein |Olivia Stevens |Jeremy Gorner |Caroline Kubzansky | +1 more

Catholics across the region are celebrating the historic announcement that the first American pope in the 2,000-year history of the church was born and raised in the Chicago area. In his first words as Pope Leo XIV, 69-year-old Robert Francis Prevost proclaimed “peace be with you,” invoking a message of dialogue, unity and care for those in need from Vatican City on Thursday. “When I heard the news of the new Holy Father at that moment, at least here in Chicago, the sun came out,” said the Rev.

1 week ago | chicagotribune.com | Caroline Kubzansky

Word that a 35-year-old man had been shot to death spread rapidly up and down a two-block stretch of Gage Park Monday evening. Police said the man was standing outside on the 5200 block of South Washtenaw Avenue when someone drove up, took out a gun and fired at him from inside around 7:20 p.m.The man was wounded in the face and the abdomen and pronounced dead at Mount Sinai Hospital, police said.

1 week ago | chicagotribune.com | Caroline Kubzansky

A homeless woman was shot to death in a vacant lot on the near West Side Sunday evening, according to Chicago police. Police said an unknown man approached the woman, who hadn’t been identified as of Sunday night, and shot her in the head at 1515 S. Laflin St. just before 5:30 p.m. Emergency workers found the woman, estimated to be in her 30s, still breathing, but she was pronounced dead around 6:05 p.m. at Stroger Hospital, according to police.