Dave and Denise Hughes, donning White Sox gear and Chicago flags, were walking outside St. Peter’s Square just after sunrise Wednesday.
The Wheaton natives spotted another pair wearing Sox gear across the street.
“Are you guys South Siders?” Dave Hughes bellowed. They were.
The two couples connected, and the Hugheses gave their fellow South Side fans one of their Chicago flags to wave at Pope Leo XIV’s general audience that morning.
Hours later, the pontiff — a Chicago native and the first American pope — spoke to the masses gathered at St. Peter’s Square during his weekly event. He rode the popemobile, waving at the crowd, blessing babies and even hitting the “6-7” hand gesture as he arrived.
While addressing the crowd, Pope Leo called the church “a living organism, which needs to grow, mature and adapt to circumstances.”
Mayor Brandon Johnson — alongside a consortium of Chicago representatives from the education, labor, business and immigration sectors and a few alderpeople — is spending a few days in Rome around his private meeting with the pope Thursday.
While Johnson initially joked he would give the pontiff a Cubs hat — even though Pope Leo is arguably the world’s most famous Sox fan — the mayor’s communications director, Erin Connelly, confirmed he will not gift a Cubs hat. Johnson’s gift package will include other Chicago staples and some sports memorabilia.
A year after Pope Leo’s election, pride in his Chicago roots still runs deep, with Chicagoans decked out in city-themed gear lining up for Wednesday Mass at the Vatican four hours before it started.
In a sea of hundreds and in almost 90-degree weather, Chicago was well represented — including a family from Beverly waving Chicago flags in the front row as Pope Leo spoke.
Another Catholic Chicago family, who traveled to Italy for a wedding and attended the general Mass, brought their city flag and draped it along the square barrier. It caught the eye of His Holiness as he passed by in his popemobile, they said.
When Pope Leo passed, he pointed to the flag and asked if they were from Chicago, said Marguerite Tully, who lived in the city for nearly 20 years and now lives in suburban Arlington Heights. To be recognized by the pope was a particularly special experience, the family said.
