Early reports indicate that newly elected Pope Leo XIV—born Robert Prevost in Chicago, Illinois—is a Cubs fan. The situation is…ahem…smoky, so we’re not ready to say it for sure, but that’s what the early reports indicate. If he is a Cubs fan, that’s probably good. Not because we should expect the pope to pray for Cubs wins, but because the pope is technically a head of state, and who knows what White Sox fandom would do to a man with the keys to rearm the Vatican.
One thing that’s certain is that Pope Leo XIV went to Villanova, placing him alongside Jalen Brunson and Matt Szczur on the list of “important people with Chicago and Villanova ties.” (If I’m forgetting someone I should know, please take it as an intentional joke and not a glaring oversight which reveals me to be a complete and total fraud.)
What does all this mean?
Again, probably not a lot. There’s definitely a Villanova fan who thinks the pope job should have gone to Jay Wright, and there’s definitely a White Sox fan considering leaving the faith because he thinks Cubs fans from the South Side can’t be trusted. The best thing that can come out of this is a papal round of MJ vs. LeBron, though ideally, Pope Leo XIV will casually dismiss the notion as “not really a debate…at least in the eyes of the Lord.” In lieu of that, we’ll at least get some jokes off when the Caleb Williams era takes its bleakest turns at Soldier Field.
More pope thoughts:
- It’s cool that he’s from Illinois. Really cool! Makes you feel like you know the guy. Me and the pope, just two guys from Illinois who made it big and/or started an NIT blog and consequently became a stay-at-home dad.
- I want to know why he didn’t go to Notre Dame. Not that there’s a good reason or a bad reason, but I’m sensing a contrarian streak.
- I really don’t know what the Augustinians are about. I know the Jesuits, and one of my friends recently taught me that a good way to remember the Franciscans is to remember St. Francis of Assisi (I probably should’ve gotten that one on my own). Don’t really know what to think of the Augustinians. My neighbors a few years ago had a dog named Augie. Those neighbors went to Villanova and were gay. Just a few data points that felt relevant.
- This is neither here nor there but I said “more pope thoughts” and this is a pope thought, so: Back in second grade, my family went to Italy over spring break. Really cool trip. Amazing that my parents took a seven-year-old to Italy. Among other things, we saw Pope John Paul II. (Again, feels relevant: My dad’s Catholic, my mom’s protestant, two of us three boys are protestant but we all married Catholics but I think one of my sisters-in-law is protestant now. Definitely practices that way. Who knows what’s on her driver’s license.) A week after we got back, the Sunday School activity involved drawing a picture of someone famous. I asked if I could draw someone infamous, and after the teacher had a laugh about a seven-year-old asking if he could draw someone infamous, she told me no. So, instead of drawing Osama Bin Laden (it was April 2002!) I drew the pope. My teacher asked if I’d drawn Bob the Builder. Protestants, man. Always bad at iconography.
- I really like that Pope Leo XIV often goes by Bob. I wonder how he feels about VeggieTales.
**
