Nearly universal social etiquette dictates that a guest should never arrive at a person’s home empty-handed.
But what do you bring when the “home” is the Vatican and the host is Pope Leo XIV?
“What to get someone who has everything?” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he asked himself before choosing (perhaps unadvisedly, given the reaction) the crystal football he presented to the first U.S.-born pope earlier this month.
Since his inauguration as pontiff one year ago, Leo has hosted audiences with many world leaders, celebrities and other notables. They’ve all brought gifts, some of them lavish and laden with poignant symbolic and personal meaning, while others were cheekier and had sporty vibes.
On Thursday, during his meeting with the pope, Mayor Brandon Johnson and the Chicago delegation brought a veritable treasure chest full of hometown goodies that included an official key to the city, White Sox and Cubs apparel and a jar of J.P. Graziano’s hot giardiniera.
Popes receive countless gifts each year, from flowers and stuffed animals tossed into the popemobile, to priceless antiquities presented as official state gifts by visiting dignitaries. Some are kept for posterity and displayed at the Vatican Museum, others are discreetly auctioned off with proceeds going to various charitable endeavors and many gifts are distributed to local organizations that aid unhoused and other vulnerable people.
It’s unlikely Leo keeps any of the gifts for himself.
Like his immediate predecessor Pope Francis, Leo took a vow of poverty as a young man when he entered his religious order, the Augustinians. When Francis, a Jesuit, was elected in 2013, he became the first religious-order pope in nearly 200 years and therefore the first pope to have taken a vow of poverty since the early 1800s.
More than a few pontiffs throughout history, such as the infamously corrupt Borgias of the Renaissance, amassed immense personal fortunes. But not lately: Francis, for instance, was famously frugal, insisting on keeping his worn black work shoes in lieu of the red leather loafers preferred by other modern pontiffs. Meanwhile, Leo has been seen wearing a pair of vintage white Nike sneakers.
Below are some of the more noteworthy gifts exchanged between Leo and his famous guests:
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and first lady MK Pritzker
The gift: Artwork, a biography and beer
The story: The Pritzkers came to their November 2025 meeting at the Vatican with a series of Illinois-themed gifts. The First Lady presented Leo with a drawing by Yesenia Diaz, a woman incarcerated at Logan Correctional Center. Diaz titled her work “Praising My Way to Wholeness.” The Pritzkers also gave Leo an Abraham Lincoln biography and a four-pack of Chicago-brewed beer from Chicago’s Burning Bush Brewery, appropriately named “Da Pope American Mild Ale.”
Vice President J.D. Vance and second lady Usha Vance
The gift: A custom Chicago Bears jersey, two books by St. Augustine and an invitation from President Donald Trump
The story: The day after his inauguration as the 267th successor of St. Peter, Leo received the Vances in a private audience at the Vatican. The U.S. vice president gifted the new pontiff a navy blue Chicago Bears jersey emblazoned with “Pope Leo XIV” and signed by the Vance’s young son, Ewan. “Good choice,” Leo told the veep. J.D. Vance also presented the pope with two books by St. Augustine (founder of Leo’s Augustinian religious order) and a letter from Trump inviting Leo to the United States.
Relations between the pontiff and the Trump administration have since grown decidedly chillier, as Leo has spoken out against its immigration policies and the U.S. war in Iran and criticized Trump’s immigration policies. Trump and Vance have broadly criticized the pope for his Catholic social teachings and being “weak on crime,” among other sins. As of now, there are no plans for the pope to visit the U.S.
What the pope gave them: Leo presented the Vances with a bronze sculpture engraved with an Italian phrase meaning “peace is a fragile flower.”
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio
The gift: A crystal football with the U.S. State Department logo
The story: During a meeting at the Vatican earlier this month, Rubio presented the pope with a small crystal American football. “I know you’re a baseball guy, but I mean, it has the seal of the State Department,” Rubio said. “What to get someone who has everything? I thought, ‘Oh, a crystal (football).’” To which the pontiff replied, “Wow. OK.”
What the pope gave him: Leo gave Rubio a pen made of olive wood decorated with the pontifical coat of arms. “Olive being, of course, the plant of peace,” the pope told him.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy
The gift: A Ukrainian icon, “Mother of God with Child”
The story: In their May 18, 2025, audience just after Leo’s inauguration mass, one of several meetings the pair has had since Leo’s election, the Ukrainian president gave the new pope a religious icon painted on a fragment of a crate used to store heavy artillery munitions that reportedly was recovered from the front lines of the Ukrainian war. The icon represented children “who suffered from the war, who were deliberately kidnapped and deported by Russia and who are very much awaited at home in Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said.
King Charles III and Queen Camilla of England
The gift: An icon of St. Edward the Confessor, a photograph and an orchid
The story: During his historic visit to the Vatican in October 2025, King Charles joined Leo in prayer inside the Sistine Chapel, an historically unprecedented event considered significant ecumenically, as Charles is also the head of the Church of England. The king presented Leo with a large silver photograph of himself and Queen Consort Camilla, as well as an icon of St. Edward the Confessor, an Anglo-Saxon king of England who was known for his prayerfulness.
What the pope gave him: A scale version of a mosaic “Christ Pantocrator” from a Sicilian cathedral. At the end of a day of meetings, Charles and Leo also exchanged orchids, plants “known for [their] resilience in difficult environments, as a sign of their mutual commitment to the care of creation,” according to America Magazine.
Ford Motor Co. CEO Jim Farley
The gift: A 2026 Ford Explorer Platinum AWD hybrid car
The story: During a February visit to the Vatican, Jim and Lia Farley gave the pope a special hybrid Ford Explorer built secretly and specifically at a Chicago plant for Leo, a car enthusiast who famously loves to drive (something he’s had to give up as pontiff). Reportedly, the Ford CEO even took a drive with Leo to show off some of the vehicle’s special features, including unique touches such as Chicago skyline stitching and Chicago flag seat tags.
Paul Konerko, former first baseman for the White Sox
The gift: A signed Konerko White Sox jersey
The story: Leo has received his fair share of sports-related memorabilia during the first year of his pontificate, including a custom Bulls jersey from Chicago Bulls play-by-play announcer Chuck Swirsky. Konerko’s gift had been in the works for 10 months, after a photo of then-Father Bob Prevost attending Game 1 of the 2005 World Series resurfaced hours after his papal election, confirming his status as a devout Sox fan. Konerko, who wore number 14 when he played for the Sox, was a crucial part of the team’s 2005 World Series win.
In July 2025, Konerko signed a pinstriped No. 14 home jersey bearing both their names and sent it off to “Da Pope” — the 14th pope to choose the papal name Leo. Only earlier this month did the Sox finally get confirmation that Leo had received the jersey. The team posted a photo with a smiling Leo holding up the jersey.
Polish horse breeder Andrzej Michalski
The gift: A purebred Arabian horse
The story: After seeing a photograph of Leo horseback riding during his time as a missionary in Peru, Andrzej Michalski, the devout Catholic owner of a Polish stud farm, decided to gift the new pontiff an Arabian stallion named Proton. Leo received the white horse before a general audience in October 2025. Proton reportedly is now housed in stables at the papal summer residence, Castel Gandolfo, about 50 miles from the Vatican, where the Chicago pope spends his so-called “Leo’s Tuesdays.” Departing the Vatican on Monday evening, Leo spends a weekly day of respite at Castel Gandolfo —playing tennis, swimming and riding horses — before returning to his day job on Tuesday night.