Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson led a 46-person delegation to the Vatican on Wednesday for a private audience with Pope Leo XIV, the Chicago-born pontiff who was meeting with his hometown’s leader for the first time since his election to the papacy.
Mr. Johnson presented Leo with a key to the city and an invitation to visit Chicago in 2027, along with an array of Chicago-themed gifts, including a Chicago Cubs hat, which the pope declined to wear, joking that he was already wearing a hat, according to FOX 32 Chicago. Pope Leo is a well-known White Sox fan, and the delegation also brought him a White Sox hat and related team merchandise.
The meeting lasted nearly an hour, according to ABC7 Chicago, and covered immigration enforcement, U.S. foreign policy, civil rights and Chicago’s faith community. Mr. Johnson described the pope as humble and engaged, and said the pontiff’s first question was simply, “How’s Chicago?”
“I believe he took that to heart,” Mr. Johnson said of their discussion about Chicago’s legacy of civil rights organizing.
Among the topics discussed was federal immigration enforcement. Mr. Johnson said Leo asked directly about how ICE operations had affected Chicago and whether raids were still occurring. “I talked about how our rapid response team came together to support families. And then I talked about my executive orders, for which he was very gracious and encouraging,” Mr. Johnson told reporters, according to EWTN Vatican.
Mr. Johnson also said the two discussed what he characterized as U.S. involvement in the war in Iran, criticizing President Trump at a post-meeting press briefing as a “disgrace” for that involvement. Pope Leo has repeatedly criticized the conflict as unjust.
The delegation included Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates, Rainbow PUSH Coalition President Yusef Jackson, DePaul University President Robert Manuel, several city aldermen and attorney Antonio Romanucci, who served as co-counsel to Ben Crump representing the family of George Floyd in their lawsuit against the city of Minneapolis and several police officers. United Airlines director Kristopher Anderson and former Foot Locker CEO Mary Dillon also made the trip. Travel costs for the mayor and city employees were covered by World Business Chicago, a private-sector-funded economic development agency.
In a letter handed to the pope during the visit, Mr. Johnson invoked Pope John Paul II’s 1979 Mass in Grant Park — attended by an estimated 1.5 million people — and invited Pope Leo to repeat the occasion. “Your Holiness, you were a young priest-in-training at the time. Perhaps you were there,” Mr. Johnson wrote, urging the pontiff to share his “own message of hope, unity and service” with Chicago nearly 50 years later.
Leo was born and raised in Chicago before entering the priesthood and eventually ascending to lead the Catholic Church last year. Since his election, he has granted private audiences to several Illinois figures, including Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
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