Two years ago, the pontiff plucked Blase Cupich, then a 65-year-old priest from Nebraska, out of the sleepy diocese of Spokane and put him in charge of one of the largest, most troubled archdioceses in the U.S. Then, last summer, Cupich’s job got even more complicated: He was appointed to the Congregation for Bishops, the influential Vatican committee that advises the pope on new leadership assignments. Now, Cupich has reached a pinnacle within the Church: He has joined the College of Cardinals, the small body of leaders that selects the pope.

As Cupich’s attention is increasingly drawn to Rome, his archdiocese is going through big changes. Cupich and his staff recently launched a campaign called “Renew My Church,” an effort to identify and bring resources to the most vibrant parts of the archdiocese as burdensome maintenance costs, a worsening shortage of priests, and declining church attendance threaten its long-term vitality. Some might see the initiative as a nice way of talking about church closures and budget cuts, but Cupich insists that’s not the case. “My predecessors lived in an era in which there was a lot of building of buildings,” he said. “It was kind of exciting: People like to invest in brick and mortar. This is a little harder, because what you’re doing is saying the goal has to be not a strong building, but a strong Church—meaning the people.”

In many ways, Chicago is the American test case for Francis’s vision of the Church—one that is vibrant, energized, and focused on caring for those who have been thrown away by society. Many pastors, like Cupich, have welcomed this renewed call to “smell like the sheep” they tend in their churches. But the pope has his enemies, too; especially in America, not everyone agrees that Francis is taking the Church in the right direction. Cupich has made a dizzying ascent, earning a job that’s part Roman consigliere, part CEO, and part social worker. If he succeeds, his work will be a testament to Francis-style Catholicism. If he fails, though, the consequences won’t just be political. Cupich wants to lift people out of poverty, create better education systems, and bring an end to the gun deaths. But the city and the Church he serves are both struggling to hold violence at bay.

When Cupich became a cardinal on Sunday, he may have had the most high-profile cheering section in Rome. The mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel, personally attended, as did Governor Bruce Rauner, U.S. Senator Dick Durbin, and Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke. Cupich tried to wave away his new title—“my brothers and sisters will treat me with the same lack of deference they’ve always had,” he said—but his supporters are excited. “It’s not an accident that when you look at who’s coming, that he’s touched them personally,” said Emanuel in an interview. These leaders “all see the archbishop’s raising in elevation to cardinal as a testament to his work here in the city.” As Burke said, “It’s like going to a birthday party or an anniversary. Everyone thoroughly loves this man.”