Paula Hambrick never imagined that in her lifetime the Catholic Church would be led by a pope from the United States, never mind her hometown of Chicago.

But at a mass on Friday in her Midwestern city in honor of the newly elected Pope Leo XIV, a native son of the so-called Windy City, the 77-year-old was counting her blessings.

"There's probably three things that I would have hoped for in my life: to see the Cubs win the World Series, a woman become president and an American pope," she told AFP, naming one of the local professional baseball teams.

"I got two out of three! It's pretty good odds, right?" said Hambrick, who like the new pope hails from the city's southern suburbs.

"It's terrific. I'm thrilled," she added, speaking under the wood vault of Chicago's Holy Name Cathedral.

By 8 a.m. the pews were fuller compared to one hour earlier for the first mass to celebrate the new pope, but still relatively sparse.

Alejandro Mendoza, who was among the several hundred people to turn out for the service, said he had become more proud of Chicago.

"I'm telling everybody that the pope is from where I'm from," the 24-year-old said.

"It feels like you know him. It's very special, this sense of pride."

'A prophetic figure'

Maryjane Okolie, a nun who has been working in the southern suburbs of Chicago for more than a decade, said people there were "excited" and "surprised" that Robert Francis Prevost had become the 267th pope.

"Everybody is talking about it," she told AFP. 

She said she hoped Leo would follow in the footsteps of his predecessor, pope Francis, who gained a reputation for attending to the disadvantaged.

Nate Bacon, a 61-year-old deacon who has been working in Guatemala for more than 10 years and was in town to visit his son, said he was "shocked" by the news.

"At a time when the United States is in a really dominating kind of posture, to have a pope from the United States felt it had a cringe factor to it," he said.

Those concerns were assuaged when Bacon learned that Prevost had performed years of missionary service in Peru and that the new pope "was someone who built bridges and would continue the work of Pope Francis."

"I became enthusiastic," Bacon told AFP.

He said he hopes Leo can undo some of the "destruction" wrought by the administration of US President Donald Trump, who has adopted an aggressive anti-immigration stance since taking office this year.

"I'm hoping a pope who was born in the United States could be a prophetic figure and a sign of a return to true values of justice, peace, and welcoming strangers and immigrants, and standing with those whom society has thrown away," he added.

Bishop Lawrence Sullivan, who helped lead Friday's mass, said a return to Chicago by Leo would bring "tremendous excitement and joy."