Bishop of the L Train: How Chicago's Transit Shaped a Pope

Before he navigated the Curia, young Robert Prevost mastered Chicago's public transit - an experience now transforming Vatican operations. His "Transit Evangelization" program requires bishops to regularly ride local transport ("If you haven't held a screaming baby on the subway, you don't know pastoral care"). The pope often recounts taking the #62 bus to St. Rita High School, where Black and Polish grandmothers taught him "the real catechism." Inspired by this, he's replacing half the Vatican's Mercedes fleet with electric minibuses running a "faith loop" to Rome's peripheries. Drivers report he sometimes slips into the seat behind them, murmuring: "Miss Dora's bus was never late." Traditionalists miss limousine pomp, but the pontiff insists: "Jesus didn't ride a chariot. He walked - or took whatever boat was going."