
With the election of American cardinal Robert Prevost as the new pope, the City of Chicago is abuzz with Pope Leo XIV being one of their own.
Long before being elected as the 267th pope and leader of the Roman Catholic Church on Thursday, Pope Leo XIV — the first pope from the United States — was born in Chicago, and the city’s two Major League Baseball teams are trying to settle exactly who now has the rooting interests of the entire Catholic Church behind them.
On Thursday afternoon — running with a claim by an ABC News reporter — the Chicago Cubs boasted that Pope Leo XIV was a fan of theirs, with their famous signage outside Wrigley Field telling the locals the good news: “Hey, Chicago. He’s a Cubs fan!”
However, those claims would quickly be contradicted by John Prevost, Pope Leo XIV’s brother, who told WGN TV that he was actually a White Sox fan and that any report about supporting the Cubs was incorrect. According to his brother, the family of the pope’s mother had been from the north side of Chicago, which had made them Cubs fans. His father, meanwhile, had been a fan of the St. Louis Cardinals
“He was never, ever a Cubs fan,” John Prevost said. “So I don’t know where that came from. He was always a Sox fan.”
The White Sox, of course, were incredibly pleased by this clarification.
The Vatican said that Pope Leo XIV was ordained a priest in Chicago in 1982, having studied and received his Master’s degree at the Catholic Theological Union in Hyde Park. After living in Peru for many years, first as a missionary and then as Archbishop Emeritus of the Diocese of Chiclayo, Pope Leo XIV returned to Chicago in 1999 to become Provincial and Prior General of the Augustinian Province. He would also serve as teacher of the professed and provincial vicar, teaching at Mendel Catholic High School in Chicago and Tolentine College in Olympia Fields, Illinois.
The new pope’s apparent White Sox fandom marks the latest chapter in an interesting history between the game of baseball and the Catholic Church. Several popes have held Mass at MLB stadiums, with Yankee Stadium, Shea Stadium, Dodger Stadium, Candlestick Park, Camden Yards and Nationals Park among the parks that have welcomed His Holiness through the years.
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