ROME (AP) — Baseball rivalry couldn't be averted when Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson — a Cubs fan — met privately Thursday with Pope Leo XIV, a Chicago native and lifelong White Sox fan.
Johnson diplomatically brought gifts from both cross-town rivals, and asked the pope to come visit his hometown. But when he handed the pope a Cubs hat, the pontiff noted he already was wearing a cap — a white zucchetto, or skull cap worn by pontiffs.
“I was able to
proudly offer him up the Cubs hat, of which he made it very clear that he was already wearing one,” Johnson told reporters after the private meeting with Leo at the Vatican.
“When we sat down before we took the group picture, he said he was grateful that we’re all coming together uniting, you know Cubs fans, Sox fans,” Johnson said.
Johnson is a progressive Democrat and leading critic of U.S. President Donald Trump, who is serving his first term as mayor of the third-largest city in the U.S. During the private meeting with the pope, Johnson applauded Leo for pushing back against the war in Iran and Trump administration immigration policies.
“First of all, I just thanked him for his courage. I thanked him for his moral stance against these endless wars," Johnson said. He said the pope asked him specifically about Immigration and Customs Enforcement deployment and its impact on the city.
Johnson said the pontiff "was very gracious and very encouraging" about a series of executive orders that he had issued to push back against federal immigration enforcement operations in Chicago.
Trump has frequently criticized Leo for his anti-war stance, to which Leo responded with increasingly bold retorts — all leading to a fence-mending visit by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier this month.
Johnson took the opportunity to invite Leo to his hometown next year, recalling Pope John Paul II’s visit to Chicago and Mass in Grant Park on Oct. 5, 1979, “forever remembered as the most spiritually inspiring day in Chicago history.”
“Your Holiness, you were a young priest-in-training at the time. Perhaps you were there. Perhaps you would consider a repeat Papal visit nearly 50 years later to share your own message of hope, unity and service,’’ Johnson wrote in a letter he presented to the pope with the formal invitation.
Johnson, who grew up the son of a pastor, invited the pope to say Mass in Grant Park in 2027, noting that Chicago is home to one of the largest Catholic populations in the United States.
It’s at least the second official invitation that Leo has received to visit the United States. U.S. Vice President JD Vance invited Leo soon after he became pope last May.
Leo was born Robert Prevost in 1955 in the South Side of Chicago neighborhood of Bronzeville and grew up in suburban Dolton, near St. Mary of the Assumption, where he attended Mass and elementary school.
He later studied theology at the Catholic Theological Union of Chicago in Hyde Park and taught in local Catholic schools.
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AP writer Colleen Barry contributed from Milan.
