Is Pope Leo XIV the world’s most famous White Sox fan?
Probably. (Step aside, Barack.)
Just don’t call the new pontiff — aka Sox fan Rob from Dolton — the first pope ever to have stepped foot in Rate Field.
“I am the current Pierogi Pope,” said Patrick Ramirez, making his way into the ballpark on Friday evening as the team entered its papal era. “I’ve come to bless the Sox. We’ve got to get a win.”
That’s right. Ramirez, the mystical leader thrice anointed by the “cardinals” of the annual Pierogi Fest in his hometown of Whiting, Indiana, — a summertime celebration of the eastern European dumpling treat — has been working his magic from the Sox Park concourse undetected by his fellow fans for years.
At least, undetected when he’s not wearing his big pope hat with a Sox sticker slapped on the front.
“There’s a conclave right in my driveway at the end of every Pierogi Fest. We sit in a circle. We have a beer. And at the end of the beer, you crush the can, and you throw it at the feet of the person you want to be the next pope,” Ramirez said.
“I’ve done it three times. I love it. My wife, not so much.”
But Ramirez’s faux-religious getup was loved by Sox fans who repeatedly stopped him for photos on his way into the ballpark as the South Side faithful relished news that the world’s most prominent religious leader is a Chicago-born, long-suffering White Sox fan just like them.
“That grittiness, that don’t-give-up attitude — that’s a White Sox fan,” David Alvarado said while tailgating with his girlfriend, Viviana Jimenez. “You don’t just get elected to be a pope. You gotta show your true colors, who you really are. To me, that’s a South Sider.”
“It’s about perseverance,” Jimenez said, nodding to the team’s dismal record this year and last. “It’s hoping for the best, wanting the best, finding optimism.”
And His Holiness’ support couldn’t hurt the on-field product.
“If we can get a billion Catholics praying for them, it’s gotta help,” Owen Kaveny said before the game with his friend, Dennis Evans.
The good papal vibes certainly didn’t hurt Friday as the Sox beat Miami 6-2.
“Maybe it’ll bring some positive energy to Chicago,” Joe Nitti said at a family tailgate alongside his wife’s aunt’s mother — a South Side Chicago gathering if ever there was one.
“My son lives two blocks from [Pope Leo’s] brother in New Lenox,” said Helen Principato, Nitti’s relative. She could only shake her head and chuckle at the minuscule degrees of separation between her and the Vatican.
“A fellow South Sider. It’s a dream,” she said.
Carlos Ramirez of La Grange said he breathed a sigh of relief after early reports of Pope Leo being a Cubs fan were debunked by his brother. A photo obtained by Sun-Times of the future pope at a 2005 World Series game was backed up by Sox sleuths who discovered Friday that Robert Prevost even made it on the broadcast of Game 1.
Pope Leo XIV made the broadcast while at Game 1 of the 2005 World Series
— Joe Binder (@JoeBinder) May 9, 2025
“I married my wife, and she’s a North Side person that lives on the South Side, so I was willing to accept it. But I’m glad he’s actually one of us,” Ramirez said, grilling burgers in the lot north of the stadium. “I’m hoping we get some blessings here, because we need them.”
It’ll take more than a little divine intervention for the last-place Sox to turn around their fate in this latest rebuild, brothers Jake and Joren Nisiewicz of Hebron, Indiana, said. “Probably some better players would help,” Jake offered.
Inside the Sox clubhouse, players’ reactions to their suddenly historic fan were warm, if muted.
“I’m sure he’s rooting for everybody, but that’s great,” outfielder Michael A. Taylor said.
“Hopefully he can help us turn things around, give us a little bit better luck out there for the team in general,” said lefty reliever Brandon Eisert. “Anything we can get.”
Christine O’Reilly, the White Sox vice president for communications, hailed “a global, historic event that has a White Sox twist.”
“We never, ever thought it was going to get better than having Barack Obama in our corner. And all of a sudden, this is on a global stage. It feels so amazing, and I’m so excited our fans get to feel that.”
Just don’t hold your breath on a first pitch from the pope anytime soon.
“Let’s face it, he has a lot of priorities, getting things in order at the Vatican, but there would be nothing more amazing for us than to be able to welcome him home here to his team, in his city with his fans,” O’Reilly said.
But back to the Pierogi Pope — any advice for Leo XIV?
“I don’t think I need to give him any,” Patrick Ramirez conceded. “He’s from Chicago. He’s a good guy. … He loves Aurelio’s pizza, from what I understand. More importantly, he’s a big Sox fan, and he’s a good Catholic, so he knows what to do.”