SAN FRANCISCO
Lee Heidhues 5.9.2025
As a Chicago native who was uprooted at the age of five and transported to San Francisco I have never forgotten my Windy City roots.
https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/pope-leo-xiv-born-in-chicago-grew-up-dolton-illinois/
The naming of the first American Pope, born in Chicago, is bringing out every person who considers themselves a native. No more so than fans of the northside Cubs and southside White Sox.
Even the Wall Street Journal immersed itself in Chicago sports lore in trying to determine which team is the Pope Leo XIV favorite.
Excerpted from The Wall Street Journal 5.9.2025
From the moment the Roman Catholic Church revealed Thursday that its next leader hailed from Chicago, one question quickly dominated the world of sports: Which of the city’s two Major League Baseball teams does Pope Leo XIV root for?
In the immediate aftermath of Robert Prevost’s election, the widespread assumption was that he preferred the Cubs—especially after an ABC News journalist indicated as much on the air. From a theological perspective, this theory made a lot of sense. The Cubs once went 108 years without winning the World Series, so their fans are intimately familiar with the suffering of the less fortunate.
As the rumors of Leo’s alleged affections spread, the Cubs were quick to gloat about their new and unexpected association with one of the most important religious figures on the planet. They changed the message on the iconic marquee outside Wrigley Field on Thursday afternoon to: “Hey, Chicago. He’s a Cubs fan!”
“Not only would we welcome Pope Leo XIV to Wrigley Field,” Cubs owner Tom Ricketts said in a statement, “he could sing ‘Take Me Out to the Ball Game.’”
There was just one big problem: It appears Leo is actually a devout supporter of the Cubs’ crosstown rival, the White Sox.
“He was never, ever a Cubs fan, so I don’t know where that came from,” John Prevost, Leo’s brother, said in an interview with the Chicago television station WGN on Thursday. “He was always a Sox fan.”
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