According to church leaders from the Archdiocese of Chicago, newly elected Pope Leo XIV, the first pope to hail from the United States, has a heart for the poor and is also a Cubs fan.
Leo XIV’s election was announced to the entire world on Thursday, marking a historic moment in which a Chicago-born cardinal, Robert Francis Prevost, was chosen as the Catholic Church’s new leader.
A member of the Augustinians, a religious order within the Catholic Church, the 69-year-old pontiff was born in Chicago, studied at Villanova University, was ordained a priest in 1982 and was made a cardinal by Pope Francis in 2023.
He had been serving as prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Bishops and president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.
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The Chicago archdiocese celebrated the news of the pope’s election in a press conference on Thursday in which they shared some insight into what kind of leader Leo might be.
Chicago Auxiliary Bishop Lawrence Sullivan said that “Pope Francis was certainly someone who cared for those who are living on the fringes, who could easily be forgotten. And I strongly suspect that Pope Leo the 14th will do the same thing. He will give voice to the voiceless.”
Sullivan said that Leo “brings a wide variety of perspectives,” including “what it means to have been born in Chicago, what it means to have been educated here in the United States, what it means to serve in Peru.”
He said that Leo’s former leadership roles at the Vatican mean that he “has a real hands-on knowledge of what it means to serve the poor and to help those who are in need” and that he is “very familiar with the worldwide church.”
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Sullivan went on to note that “the people of God are not confined to national boundaries” and that Leo “is not an American at this point. He’s a child of God, and that’s the way that he’s going to lead, taking all people into consideration.”
Despite this, Father Gregory Sakowicz, rector of Chicago’s Holy Name Cathedral, said, “You can never deny your roots. So, I’m sure he has a love for Chicago, love for the United States. That’s part of his upbringing.”
Smiling, Sakowicz said that “one burning question I have is the fact that the Pope, Leo the 14th, or the cardinal, then Robert Prevost, was born in Chicago on the South Side. Is he a Chicago White Sox fan?”
Sakowicz said he did not know whether Leo was a White Sox fan but that he knows that “he’s a Cubs fan.”
“I heard he’s a Cubs fan. Well, God bless him, and God bless all the fans,” said Sakowicz.
