How crazy have Chicagoans gone over the election of Pope Leo XIV?
Ragen Eggert, a worker at the local hot dog stand, Wiener’s Circle, said, “It’s officially a sin to have ketchup on a hot dog.” She was referring to the sacrilege of any Chicagoan putting the condiment on their dog.
The Wrigley Field electric sign at the main entrance to the ballpark blazed the message, “Hey Chicago, He’s a Cubs Fan!”
“Not only would we welcome Pope Leo XIV to Wrigley Field, he could sing ‘Take Me Out to the Ballgame,’” Cubs Chairman Tom Ricketts said in a statement.
“Or, since three of his predecessors visited Yankee Stadium, including Pope Paul VI who delivered the 1965 ‘Sermon on the Mound,’ we would invite the Pontiff to do the same at the Friendly Confines,” Ricketts added.
Some on social media suggested Pope Leo XIV was a perfect choice to heal the world’s suffering, thanks to his allegiance to the Cubs, which refers to the team winning one World Series in 117 years.
It makes a good story, but unfortunately for Cubs fans, it’s not true.
“They had it wrong. He’s Sox, and then the radio announced Cubs, and that’s not true,” John Prevost, Pope Leo’s brother, told CBS News Chicago, adding that the new pope has been a White Sox fan “as long as I’ve known him.”
Many in Chicago compared hearing of Pope Leo’s election to how they felt when the Cubs won their first World Series in 2016 since 1908.
“It really feels like a 2016 Cubs World Series,” said seventh-grader Vincent Wall. (The kid was 4 in 2016) “It’s just like, a pope from Chicago is just global, and so is the World Series. It’s crazy.”
Robert Prevost was born on the far Southwest side of the city, amidst the smokestacks of the city’s long-gone steel mills. It was a nice middle-class neighborhood of brick row houses and tidy apartments.
And it was heavily Catholic.
While Catholicism in the United States is usually associated with Irish Bostonians (2 million Catholics, or 37%), Chicago features diverse communities of 2.2 million Polish, Italian, Slavic, and Irish Catholics.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, immigrants from Germany, Ireland, Poland and Italy formed vibrant parishes. Today, church spires are as prevalent in Chicago’s urban landscape as art deco motifs and skyscrapers.
Chicago’s Catholic community has faced many of the same headwinds the church has weathered across the US. In 2022, the Chicago archdiocese unveiled plans to slash its number of parishes by 123. Financial pressures, fewer priests and dwindling mass attendance pushed the diocese to consolidate. This March, data from Pew showed a 12% drop in the number of Chicagoans who identify as Christian, compared with data from a decade ago.
Meanwhile, the church’s continued battle with sexual abuse scandals comes at a time when secularism is on the rise in America.
But throughout the city on Thursday, the news of a hometown pope had people in high spirits.
Where there is media, there are politicians wanting to horn in on the publicity. A hometown pope gave local politicians a twofer: a chance to show their piety and pride of ownership.
“Pope Leo XIV ushers in a new chapter that I join those in our state welcoming in at a time when we need compassion, unity, and peace,” said the Governor of Illinois, J.B. Pritzker.
We always need “compassion, unity, and peace,” so who do you think the Springfield Fat Man is talking about?
As might be expected, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson was spectacularly inappropriate.
Everything dope, including the Pope, comes from Chicago! Congratulations to the first American Pope Leo XIV! We hope to welcome you back home soon. https://t.co/CBnXVjNhbJ
— Mayor Brandon Johnson (@ChicagosMayor) May 8, 2025
Like a drunk uncle at a family reunion, I hope someone locks Brandon Johnson in a closet if the pope ever comes to Chicago.
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