Officials in Dolton, Ill., called the purchase a rare opportunity. But some residents questioned whether the village, grappling with a deficit and potholes, could afford it.

A village in Chicago’s south suburbs is poised to purchase Pope Leo XIV’s childhood home after its board voted unanimously on Tuesday to take control of the property.

In a unanimous vote at a special board meeting held July 1, the village council of Dolton, Ill., voted to purchase the childhood home of the first U.S.-born pope, Robert Francis Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV.