VATICAN CITY — “How’s Chicago?”
That was the first thing Pope Leo XIV asked Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson when the two met in a private audience Thursday afternoon at the Vatican.
For Johnson, it was clearly a pastoral question.
It also felt familial, as if the pope were asking, “How are your folks?”
“I was able to say that Chicago is strong and that we are transforming,” Johnson said during a press conference at the American University in Rome shortly after he met for more than 20 minutes one-on-one with the first U.S.-born, Chicago pope. “He gave, I think, a great sort of pastoral nod, a pleasure to hear the incredible progress that … we’ve made.”
During their visit, Johnson presented the pope with a formal letter of invitation, asking him to please come to Chicago in 2027 to celebrate Mass, following in the footsteps of a predecessor, Pope John Paul II, who spent two days in Chicago in October 1979. The world’s first Polish pope celebrated Mass in Grant Park, drawing a crowd approximately 1.5 million strong. [Read the text of the letter.]
“October 5, 1979 is forever remembered as the most spiritually inspiring day in Chicago history,” Johnson’s letter of invitation to Leo began. “Your holiness, you were a young priest-in-training at the time. Perhaps you were there. Perhaps you would consider a repeat Papal visit nearly 50 years later to share your own message of hope, unity and service.”
There has been speculation in some quarters that Leo would not visit the United States until after President Donald Trump, with whom he has clashed publicly, was out of office. But Johnson insisted he heard no hesitation from the pope about visiting his hometown sooner than later.
“I didn’t get any reticence about coming,” Johnson said. “I didn’t pick up on that. I think if anything, I picked up on the fact that he was blessed by our presence today.”
Johnson meant this literally.
Among the delegation were several faith leaders who at one point during the meeting, asked to pray with — and for — the pope.
“I don’t know how many people get an opportunity to actually pray for him, but at the end of the day, he’s still a man, and he’s someone who will have to work through the challenges of life like anyone else. And it was important that Chicago — that we put our arms around him, that we blessed him, that we pray for him because we know that someone with his stature will be a target. So we pray for his comfort. We pray for his protection and his security.”
Both Leo and Johnson have been attacked publicly by Trump for their opposition to the war in Iran and the Trump administration’s policies on immigration, Gaza, Cuba, Haiti, and other issues, many of which they addressed during their private conversation at the Vatican.
“First of all, I thanked him for his courage,” Johnson said. “I thanked him for his moral stance against these endless wars, and certainly talked about the vote that I took in City Council a couple of years ago, calling for a ceasefire [in Gaza] and the releasing of hostages and our continuous stance on ending these illegal wars. We also talked about just elevating the awareness of the conditions that many people are living through, whether that’s in Chicago or Haiti, Venezuela, Cuba.
“We talked about … the conditions that the long legacy of slavery and disinvestment has had on Black America, [and] Black people around the globe. I engaged in a conversation with him around reparations and why it’s important to repair the harm that has been caused by the brutal legacy of slavery,” Johnson continued. “We exchanged appreciation for our stances in this moment, to speak to the most vulnerable, to talk to him about affordability … and again, continuing to use his pulpit as I will use my pen, to bring justice to … humanity.”
It was a meeting of two powerful, influential men — and for Johnson, it will remain a profoundly spiritual experience.
“When you come into the presence of someone of his magnitude, who walks and imbibes the spirit of our Lord and Savior, the moment that he said, ‘Have a seat and join me’ — it was just a peaceful exchange of comfort, of knowing that just like the Holy Spirit ensures … we are always comforted. That’s grace and the love that I felt from His holiness.”
About 4 p.m. in Rome, Leo welcomed Johnson and a delegation of more than 40 influential Chicagoans from the city’s business, religious, education, and civic communities.
Some got on their knees and kissed his ring, said Guy Chipparoni, chairperson of Choose Chicago, the city’s tourism and convention agency. According to Chipparoni, when Johnson invited Leo to celebrate Mass in Chicago next year, the pope appeared warm to the idea.
“He was just smiling, and he said, ‘I’d like to do that,’” Chipparoni said.
The delegation presented “Da Pope” with some two dozen gifts, most of them Chicago-themed. [Read a list of all the gifts they gave the pope.]
Johnson presented Leo with a key to the city, telling the pope about luminaries who had received it before him, including Nelson Mandela, Herbie Hancock, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Frank Sinatra.
“I said, ‘Now I don’t know how many keys you have to use for the Vatican, but there’s only one key for Chicago.’ And we were happy to give that to him,” Johnson quipped.
In addition to spending private time with the mayor, the 70-year-old pontiff and native of south suburban Dolton, greeted each member of the delegation. The visits were short — about a minute each — but the experience for many was rich.
“I went up and I started talking and I got choked up,” said Robert Manuel, president of DePaul University. It was his first papal audience. Leo put his arm on Manuel’s shoulder and looked him in the eyes.
“He said, ‘It’s OK,’ and that made me choke up even more,” Manuel said, emotion once again rising in his expression. “I was expecting it to be way more formal and not as intimate and connected.”
Manuel’s gift on behalf of DePaul were copies of the diplomas of Leo’s parents received. Both his mother, Mildred, and father, Louis, were DePaul graduates.
Loyola University President Mark Reed was also part of the Chicago delegation. When he chatted with the pope, Leo reminded him that his mother actually started her college career at Mundelein College [now a part of Loyola] and that his brother John Prevost is a proud Loyola Rambler, too.
“It was a grace-filled moment,” said Reed, who is scheduled to return to the Vatican next month for another audience with Leo as part of a delegation of Jesuit university presidents from the U.S. “I told him, ‘You won’t remember me, but I’ll remember you,’” he said, laughing.
Thursday was Yusef Jackson’s second papal audience — his first was back in 1983 when his father, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, brought him along on a visit with Pope John Paul II. As a young teenager, it was his first international trip. His father, who was running for president at the time, traveled to the Vatican to put on a gospel concert for the pope.
“He talked to the pope in 1983 about Haitian immigration. He talked to the pope about Cuban immigration, about using his voice as a platform for good,” said Jackson, 55, who took over as CEO of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition after his father’s death in February.
“And now, 43 years later, we have a meeting with the pope who has put that work into action,” Jackson, said, praising the pontiff for his encyclical on artificial intelligence released earlier this week that also contained an historic apology for the Roman Catholic Church’s complicity in the transatlantic slave trade.
“To make that historical apology on behalf of that church is something you can only be grateful to God for him to do … as a departure from the legacy that had been before him,” said Jackson, who asked Leo to bless his late father’s Rainbow PUSH enamel lapel pin during their brief meeting Thursday. “So, now I’ll never take off my Rainbow PUSH pin,” he said, touching the pin affixed to his left suit lapel.
The Chicago papal audience had a few lighthearted moments as well, Johnson told reporters, including when Leo noticed 12th Ward Ald. Julia Ramirez holding her baby, Victor Nicholas, decked out in White Sox gear.
“You should have seen the pope’s face light up,” the mayor recalled, adding that the pope placed his hand on the infant’s head for a blessing.
“I don’t know if that anointing is gonna translate into the White Sox having a winning streak,” said the famously die-hard Cubs fan who delivered a Cubs hat to the pontiff on behalf of the baseball club.
Still, he was determined to get a blessing for his beloved North Siders.
“I did take the Cubs hat and rub it up against his white robe,” Johnson said. “Because if there was anything that he was reticent about, it was when that Cubs hat got near him.”
Contributing: Mariah Woelfel, WBEZ