ROME — Mayor Brandon Johnson invited Pope Leo XIV to celebrate Mass in Grant Park next year during a much-awaited meeting Thursday afternoon in Vatican City, where the son of a pastor and chief executive of the pope’s hometown said the two bonded over their advocacy for migrants, descendants of slavery and the city of Chicago — intracity sports rivalries notwithstanding.

Johnson said the discussion ranged from serious matters like the federal immigration raids that have deluged the city in recent months to their differences on Chicago baseball.

“It’s a real Chicago style in terms of the way the pope delivers his message and justice,” the mayor told reporters after leaving the Vatican around 5 p.m. “What I witnessed was an incredibly humble individual whose roots really defined his leadership in this moment. … A pope who can talk about global international population shift and could have a good home Chicago argument over the Cubs and the Sox, that’s who we are in Chicago.”

Sporting a black suit adorned with a Chicago flag-themed lapel pin and cufflinks, Johnson then quipped, “Chicagoans, we can — I don’t know if this is a real word … but we can pontiff-y anything. It is now.”

Last year’s papal election of Leo as the first American-born pontiff was received with tectonic fanfare in Chicago, a heavily Catholic city where in many neighborhoods residents often first ask one another to which parish they belong. Leo’s roots as a White Sox fan and condemnation of the U.S.’ recent mass deportations amplified the local devotion.

On Thursday, Leo made clear that he is following current affairs in his hometown, Johnson said. His first question to the mayor was, “How is Chicago?”

“I will say that he is certainly conscious of the energy that he has brought to Chicago and to the globe,” Johnson said.

Johnson also did in fact present Leo with a Cubs hat, after his press team said his earlier talk of doing so was a joke.

“He understands that I’m a Cubs fan and that he’s a Sox fan. He said that he had read about a gift that I was going to provide him,” Johnson said. “And when we sat down before we took the group picture, he said he was grateful that we’re all coming together, uniting Cubs fans, Sox fans and then as he sat in his seat, he just said, ‘Oh, the Bears.’”

The mayor said the pope discussed his family’s journey as European immigrants before diving into “a deeper conversation around just the egregious behavior of the governor of Texas, shipping migrants across the country” as well as the hostile federal immigration operation in Chicago. Johnson said he touted his executive orders intended to rein in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and drew a contrast of how “the local media was dismissive of the actions that I took. This pope wasn’t.”

“He wanted to know how ICE was — first of all, how it impacted our city, and whether or not there were still examples of ICE raids happening in our city,” Johnson said. “I talked about how our rapid response community team came together to support families, helping families go from their homes to schools. We talked about the economic impact in Pilsen and Little Village, as well as Chinatown, because of the presence of ICE.”

Johnson added the most memorable moment was “discussing how we can repair the damage that has been caused by the long legacy of slavery,” on the heels of the pope’s first encyclical released Monday that made history by apologizing for the Holy See’s role in legitimizing slavery.

“I engaged in a conversation with him around reparations and why it’s important to work to repair the harm that has been caused by the brutal legacy of slavery,” Johnson said, adding that the pope didn’t elaborate on his own position on reparations.

Delegation meeting uplifted the departed and living

Ald. Julia Ramírez brought with her the youngest guest of honor in the Chicago delegation of about 50: her son Victor Nicholas, who turned 6 months old on Thursday.

Ramírez, who attended the Southwest Side Catholic school christened after Pope John Paul II, said in the moments before she was to quickly greet Leo, she held her baby and tried to telepathically urge him, “Don’t cry, don’t throw up on the pope.” Victor Nicholas ended up dozing with his head on her shoulder.

“Then the pope touches my son’s head, grabs the jersey — the Sox jersey — and was like happy that he was a Sox fan,” Ramírez told reporters afterward. Then she also showed a rosary that belonged to her late brother, Nicholas, who was killed in a shooting at 19, that she took with her upon her mother’s request.

“I’ve been thinking a lot about that, and thinking about my son being blessed, and just wanting him to be protected the way that my mom wanted my brother to be protected,” Ramírez said, choking back tears. “So, very special.”

At the American University campus in Rome after the papal meeting, Johnson greeted the aldermanic delegation — Ramírez, his budget chair Ald. Jason Ervin and Ald. Lamont Robinson — for a succinct debrief. He teased Ervin for giving the pope a “GOD BLESS THE WEST SIDE” shirt dyed in the Vatican City flag’s papal yellow colors.

“Check us out, man: Chicago, we all decked out, and, of course, West Side can never, ever stick to the script,” the mayor, also a West Side resident, laughed.

Ervin, who attends Mount Vernon Baptist Church, said he was struck by the pope’s humility.

“He was surprisingly common,” Ervin said. “Would expect some exalted type person, but I mean, if I would have walked down Michigan Avenue and walked down Madison and have a conversation with him, I would not think of him as the pope, but just as a guy you would meet and have a conversation to go to dinner with or have a drink with — not a drink, but you know, just have some camaraderie with.”

Robinson, meanwhile, delivered Leo a Chicago flag pin and remarked on how the pope was fluently hyperlocal, name-checking the Catholic school Robinson attended, Mount Carmel, even specific city streets such as Kedzie, Augusta and Damen. As he discussed his family’s immigrant roots, Leo also shouted out how he is from the South Side, but his mother grew up on the North Side and his aunt resides on the West Side, Robinson said.

Yusef Jackson, son of the late Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr., said he handed the pope a letter from his mother, Jacqueline Jackson, thanking him for his moral courage and his apology for the Holy See’s history with slavery.

After the meeting, Johnson’s team showed the Tribune a copy of the mayor’s signed correspondence inviting Leo to celebrate Mass in Grant Park in 2027. The letter remembers Pope John Paul II’s 1979 Mass in the park as “the most spiritually inspiring day in Chicago history.”

“Perhaps you would consider a repeat Papal visit nearly 50 years later to share your own message of hope, unity and service,” Johnson said in the letter. “(Chicago) remains a place where the Church’s mission is lived each day through service to the disenfranchised, the sick and vulnerable, and those searching for belonging.”

Johnson landed in Rome earlier Thursday morning for the most significant international trip of his three years in office. Born Robert Francis Prevost in Bronzeville and raised in south suburban Dolton, Leo was chosen as the 267th pope and leader of an estimated 1.4 billion Catholics worldwide a year ago.

His affinity for Aurelio’s Pizza and long-suffering support for the White Sox, Bulls and Bears has since stirred a fresh wave of hometown pride in Chicago. Johnson’s rare private audience with the pope could spruce up his popularity back home, if only temporarily, as he continues to position himself as a progressive leader steeped in faith and pride for the nation’s third-largest city despite a difficult three years in office.

Those myriad challenges include an uphill path to reelection, should he choose to run in February 2027; another grueling budget season before that in the fall; an increasingly irascible City Council and state legislature; and a recent smattering of controversial exits from his administration.

But Johnson, a West Sider and member of the nondemonational Lawndale Christian Community Church, has frequently leaned on his base within the Black church during times of tribulation in office. His father, Andrew Johnson, was a pastor, and some had expected Johnson to follow in his footsteps. Though he instead went into politics, he does bring with him a distinct pastor’s kid — known as “PK” among Christians — presentation to City Hall, at times invoking religious allegories and speaking with a Sunday sermon-style cadence.

Johnson this week stuck with his message of “bringing the pulpit and the pen” together, a theme that could resonate more in neighborhoods where the church is also an organizing force. He is joined in Rome by a coalition of political allies, religious leaders and friendly business owners, some of whom have also been touring with local officials as a show of friendship between the two cities.

Within Johnson’s inner circle, delegation members also include Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates and his senior adviser Jason Lee.

Other Chicago leaders who have already had an audience with Leo include Gov. JB Pritzker and Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, who is widely believed to be considering a run for mayor next year. Chicago Archbishop Blase J. Cupich most recently met with the pope last week in a private audience with the Catholic Extension Society.

The trip’s expenses are being covered by World Business Chicago, the public-private nonprofit agency run by the mayor that receives a mix of city tax money and private funding. Some prominent names in the local business scene are in the group, though the final price tag hasn’t yet been released.

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