Pope Leo Delivers Message of Hope to Chicago Ballpark Celebration: "God is reaching out to you, calling you.”
The recorded video marked the pontiff's first address to an American audience.
This story has been updated.
By Gary Gately
Pope Leo XIV delivered a message of peace, harmony, hope and the healing power of God’s love and grace Saturday afternoon at the home of his beloved Chicago White Sox — via a 7 ½-minute video recorded at the Vatican.
The pontiff appeared on three jumbo screens in the outfield at Rate Field, delighting the sell-out crowd of more than 30,000 — priests, bishops and nuns, friends, South Siders who know him as “Father Bob” and fellow White Sox fans, fourth-graders clad in the cardinal garb they had worn for a mock conclave, and many others donning Sox jerseys with the number 14 and “Pope Leo” on the back of “DA Pope” T-shirts bearing his image.
The former Cardinal Robert F. Prevost, the first American pope, proved a much bigger hit than the last-place White Sox, which average fewer than 17,000 fans a game. Those who scored the hottest tickets in town counted themselves among the lucky, or, perhaps, the blessed: The $5 tickets sold out within days of the announcement of the Rate Field event last month, but fetched more than $1,200 on resale sites like StubHub.
The crowd erupted in applause when the 69-year-old Leo appeared on the screens. “Dear friends,” he said, “it’s a pleasure for me to greet all of you gathered together at White Sox Park on this great celebration as a community of faith in the Archdiocese of Chicago.”
In a world ravaged by war and division, the Holy Father repeated what has become a familiar refrain since his May 8 election, telling those in the ballpark and many more watching online that they can become “beacons of hope” who foster “peace and unity throughout our world.”
Leo, who succeeded Pope Francis, who died on April 21, spoke directly to young people several times in the premier of a video that will be shown to youths across the globe.
“Young people who are gathered here, I’d like to say that you are the promise of hope for so many of us,” Leo said in his first public address to a U.S. audience. “The world looks to you as you look around yourselves and say: We need you, we want you to come together to share with us in this common mission, as a Church and in society, of announcing a message of true hope and of promoting peace, promoting harmony among all peoples.”
He acknowledged that many young people have endured isolation, loneliness, anxiety or depression.
“Sometimes, it may be that the context of your life has not given you the opportunity to live the faith, to live as participants in a faith community, and I’d like to take this opportunity to invite each one of you to look into your own hearts, to recognize that God is present and that, perhaps in many different ways, God is reaching out to you, calling you, inviting you to know his Son Jesus Christ — through the Scriptures, perhaps through a friend or a relative, a grandparent, who might be a person of faith — but to discover how important it is for each one of us to pay attention to the presence of God in our own hearts, to that longing for love in our lives, for searching, a true searching, for finding the ways that we may be able to do something with our own lives to serve others….
The new pope — a member of the 781-year-old Augustinian religious order who spent two decades ministering to the poor and marginalized in Peru and holds dual U.S.-Peruvian citizenship — urged young people to find ways to serve others.
“Coming together as friends, as brothers and sisters, in community, in a parish, in an experience of living our faith together, we can find that the Lord’s grace, that the love of God can truly heal us, can give us the strength that we need, can be the source of that hope that we all need in our lives,” Leo said.
He found his own calling early in life, dreaming of becoming a priest as a young boy growing up in a suburb just south of Chicago and attending school and serving as an altar boy at St. Mary of the Assumption parish on the South Side.
The celebration of a pontiff who preached peace and harmony came on the same day as President Donald J. Trump’s massive military parade in the nation’s capital and anti-Trump “No Kings Nationwide Day of Defiance” in over 2,000 cities
At the ballpark, Chicago Alderwoman Nicole Lee praised Leo and embraced his message. “What a great way to bring people together in a time when we need people to come together,” she told USA Today. “I love that that’s what we’re doing right now. We could all use a dose of energy and a word of encouragement about what it'll take for the world to get on a better path.”
The Archdiocese of Chicago organized the celebration of Leo’s election and a Mass that followed.
The program, emceed by Chicago Bulls announcer Chuck Swirsky, highlighted Leo’s Chicago roots and featured music by the city’s Catholic Leo High School Choir (now appearing on “America’s Got Talent”); Augustinian Brother David Marshall singing in English and Spanish and playing piano to a song he composed about Pope Leo’s Chicago roots, “One of Us;” and reflections from faith Leaders, including Reverend John Merkelis, a high school classmate and friend of the pope for nearly 50 years, and Sister Dianne Bergant, a former teacher of his at the Catholic Theological Union.
Father Merkelis, now president of Providence Catholic High School in suburban Chicago, said, “I had emailed him the night before the conclave, and I told him whatever happens, I’ll still like you. And he said he’s sleeping well because an American is not gonna be a pope.
“When he was named, I was in the faculty lounge at Providence, and when they said, Roberto Francesco, I just jumped up and said, ‘That’s Prevost! That’s Prevost!’ We screamed. Some people melted. We cried. It was just such a beautiful, beautiful moment.”
Father Merkelis described Leo as a “bridge builder,” adding: “He’s deliberate, he’s thoughtful. He will listen to all sides, but he will make up his own mind. He’ll be clear but he’ll be very pastoral. He’s a canon lawyer, and he knows how to pastorally apply the law….
“Having said all that,” Father Merkelis said, “he’s a regular guy. He’ll change your oil; he’ll fix your carburetor. He’s just a down-to-earth guy who’s very smart, very prayerful, and I believe he will bring those same qualities to all the issues he faces.”
“When he was named, I was in the faculty lounge at Providence, and when they said, Roberto Francesco, I just jumped up and said, ‘That’s Prevost! That’s Prevost!’ We screamed. Some people melted. We cried. It was just such a beautiful, beautiful moment.”— Reverend John Merkelis, Pope Leo’s high school classmate and friend of nearly 50 years
Sister Dianne joked that Leo’s election “says something about the education he got,” drawing laughter, then said he has been very much shaped by the Second Vatican Council reforms. “That means everyone is involved — not just priests and nuns,” she said. “Everyone belongs to the Church. Everyone is a missionary in a very real sense, and that’s the theology on which he grew.”
During the celebration, the jubilant crowd cheered when a video account of Leo’s life and connections to the city showed then-Father Bob Prevost in the stands during the last White Sox World Series appearance, in 2005. The ballpark immortalized the day last month with a mural of waving Pope Leo XIV, along with a picture from the TV broadcast of the future pope sitting with good friend Ed Schmit and his grandson, Eddie.
On Saturday, many lined up to take photos in front of the mural.
Brooks Boyer, White Sox Senior vice president, addressed the pope directly: “On behalf of the White Sox and all of our fans, we’d be honored to have you back here at Rate Field to throw out a ceremonial first pitch. The mound is waiting. Your crowd is certainly ready and your team, the White Sox, is here with open arms.”
Chicago Archbishop Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, who celebrated the Mass, opened his homily by quipping: “I think I am going to remember this moment as the ‘Sermon on the Mound.’”
Cardinal Cupich, who has sharply criticized Trump’s aggressive immigration policies, refrained from doing so Saturday, instead focusing directly on the plight — and the rights — of undocumented immigrants.
He acknowledged the need for secure borders to protect the nation from crime and violence, but added: “It is wrong to scapegoat those who are here without documents. For indeed, they are here due to a broken immigration system, and it is a broken immigration system which both parties have failed to fix.
“They are here not by ‘invasion’ but invitation: to harvest the fruits of the earth that feed our families, an invitation to clean our tables, homes and hotel rooms, an invitation to landscape our lawns, and, yes, even an invitation to care for our children and elderly,” Cupich said, drawing loud applause.
Leo, too, had been known as a strong advocate for migrants, particularly during his years in Peru, but steered clear of politics in his address Saturday and has avoided directly criticizing any world leaders’ immigration policies since becoming pope.
But in last Sunday’s homily, he repeatedly spoke out against “borders” between people and nations.
“The Spirit breaks down barriers and tears down the walls of indifference and hatred…. Where there is love, there is no room for prejudice, for ‘security’ zones separating us from our neighbors, for the exclusionary mindset that, tragically, we now see emerging also in political nationalisms.”
The Day In Pictures (Photos: Archdiocese of Chicago)
