“DA POPE!”
That was the headline on the front page of the Sun-Times last May, its six short letters declaring that there was a new pope, and he was from Chicago — well, Dolton, but Chicago to most people around the world.
Playing off of the classic “Saturday Night Live” routines that long ago dubbed the Bears’ Mike Ditka “Da Coach” and the team itself “Da Bearss,” the newspaper headline was the idea of longtime WBEZ audio news reporter and editor, Tony Arnold.
It quickly brought smiles around the newsroom and soon far beyond, as newly elected Pope Leo XIV’s brother John Prevost held up the front page for photographers from The New York Times and ABC, and it popped up on “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.”
