About a third of Chicagoans identify as Roman Catholic, and last year’s elevation of native son Robert Prevost as Pope Leo XIV sparked a new wave of interest and visibility in a city where people still identify their neighborhood by the closest Catholic church.

And when Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson marked the third anniversary of his inauguration this past week by announcing a planned meeting May 28 with Pope Leo, it was seen as a high-profile coup at what could be a pivotal time in the mayor’s political career.

“We are just so elated and incredibly proud,” the mayor said of the Pope during an interview Thursday scheduled to mark his third year in office. “My message to him first will be a message of gratitude for the moral clarity that he is providing.”

Mayor Johnson and Pope Leo come from different religious traditions, but the mayor said he sees in the Pope a great deal of common ground in how they approach their faith.

“His moral clarity around my policies and my executive orders I believe is a strong match, where faith and labor and government can all come together,” he said, noting their shared opposition to policies and practices of the Trump Administration, especially around immigration enforcement: “‘How do we treat our neighbor?’ ‘Who is our neighbor?’ It’s not defined by borders; it’s defined by our collective humanity.”

The mayor said the discussions about a potential visit began shortly after Pope Leo’s installation last year, and included considerations of timing: “We didn’t want to make this just a political trip.”

But it’s impossible to divorce (annul?) this visit from the mayor’s political considerations, as he weighs a potential run for re-election next year against what could be a slate of well-known, well-financed opponents, including Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, North side Congressman Mike Quigley and state Comptroller (and 2019 mayoral candidate) Susana Mendoza.

For the record, the mayor laughed when I asked if he was running for re-election: “Look, my focus is on the people of this city right now. I want the people of Chicago to know that I am solely concentrating on building safe and affordable communities. And look, the politics … at some point, we’ll have to get to that.”

But during our too-brief conversation, I took note of the timing of his visit to the Pope in the context of the citywide election set for February 23: “It would look pretty good in a (campaign) ad.”

The mayor chuckled … but didn’t bite. “You know what looks really good is Cubs and White Sox fans coming together,” a reference to his Cubs fandom and the Pope’s status as a lifelong fan of the South siders.

“Are you going to bring him a Cubs hat?” I asked.

“C’mon man, you know,” the mayor said, smiling. “Yes! Yes! At this point, I gotta bring him a jersey, I mean, let’s do it all, right?”

Whether a papal audience will be enough to bless the mayor with four more years in office in this still-very Catholic city will ultimately be decided by voters. But Mayor Johnson and his team may be hoping that a picture with Chicago’s best-known Catholic wouldn’t hurt.

The podium pic is the mayor speaking at a DNC event at the 360Chicago observation deck on May 13. The closeup pic is the mayor during our interview in his office May 14.