Trolling has become an acceptable form of flattery in sports during the social media age, and now it’s crept into the religious world.
But apparently that’s what happens when the pope is from one of the most storied sports cities in America. Pope Leo XIV is a Chicago native and a sports fanatic, with the White Sox ranking No. 1 on his list. On Tuesday, Pope Leo was visited at the Vatican by Mar Awa III, who presented Leo with a custom Cubs Jersey.
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Awa, who’s also a Chicago native, is the head of the Assyrian Church of the East and “mistakenly” gave Leo the Cubs jersey as a gift during his visit to Vatican City. It’s more likely that Awa caught wind of Leo’s public interaction a couple of weeks ago, where some yelled out, “Go Cubs!” at the pope, to which he responded, “Han perdido! They lost!” Awa’s master trolling is even more effective, given how big a White Sox fan Pope Leo is.
The Cubs had a good 2025 season, winning 92 games and finishing in second place in the NL Central. However, at the time of this Pope Leo interaction with this fan, the Cubs had recently been eliminated in five games by the Milwaukee Brewers in the NLDS.
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Formerly known as [Cardinal] Robert Francis Prevost, Pope Leo XIV grew up a huge baseball fan on the south side of Chicago, rooting for his White Sox. However, Leo’s father was a St. Louis Cardinals fan and his mother a Cubs fan, who reside on the north side of the city.
In 2005, Leo was lucky enough to be in attendance to watch his White Sox win their first World Series since 1917.