A man from South Boston had a chance to briefly speak to Pope Leo XIV and apparently put a bug in his ear about coming to New England.
During a recent visit to the Vatican, Stephen Ryan got a chance to chat with the pope about baseball, specifically the Red Sox and the White Sox.
Stephen Ryan holds up a Red Sox-White Sox sign that he says caught the eye of Pope Leo XIV. (NBC Boston)
Leo is a Chicago native and lifelong White Sox fan.
“He stopped in front of us. He noticed the sign that said, ‘Boston Red Sox, Chicago White Sox,’ and that caught his attention because he’s a White Sox fan,” Ryan told NBC Boston. “It’s almost like he didn’t want to leave. We were having a one-on-one conversation amongst tens of thousands of people that were in the square.”
“When I told him that there’s some Red Sox-White Sox games coming up at Fenway Park this summer he was like, ‘I think I want to go,'” Ryan said.
The pope can be heard saying, “I want to visit Boston,” in a video clip Ryan recorded.
Stephen Ryan recorded this video of Pope Leo XIV during a recent trip to the Vatican. (NBC Boston)
There’s no word on whether Pope Leo will make a trip to New England.
Pope John Paul II was the last pope to visit Boston. That was in October 1979.