Cubs or Sox? New pope’s Chicago roots lead to debate over baseball loyalties

The election of a new pope brings all kinds of analysis and theorizing, about his chosen papal name, his views on reforms, his fluency in Italian, even his choice of footwear.

But after learning they can call the leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics one of their own, many Chicagoans and suburbanites also mused on something eternally sacred: Pope Leo XIV’s baseball allegiances.

“His brother clarified it, that he is a Sox fan, but maybe we can convert him to the North Side,” pondered the Rev. Burke Masters, the Catholic chaplain for the Chicago Cubs and pastor of St. Isaac Jogues Church in Hinsdale.

Before the start of the conclave, Masters told a TV station he thought the election of an American pontiff will happen “sometime in our lifetime, not sure if it’ll happen in this election, though.”

“So I was happily surprised as they were reading the name in Latin, and I heard Prevost, and I thought, ‘Oh my goodness, that's the cardinal from Chicago whose Augustinian. I’ve met him before,’” recalled Masters.

That encounter was years ago, but Masters still remembers Prevost’s “kindness, his genuine interest in each person that he was speaking to, just being very present to each person that was there.”

Aside from their differences in baseball loyalty, Masters has a few things in common with the new pope.

A Joliet native, Masters attended Providence Catholic, an Augustinian high school. He also studied mathematics and played baseball at Mississippi State University. Prevost earned a degree in mathematics from Villanova University in Pennsylvania, per Vatican News.

“Pope Leo XIV will be impacted by his Chicago roots, his Augustinian formation, and then from working a significant time in Peru as well,” Masters said.

The Cubs weighed in on the papal excitement with an apparently erroneous message on the Wrigley Field marquee: “Hey Chicago, He’s a Cubs fan!” the sign read Thursday.

But the pope’s brother, John Prevost of New Lenox, later told reporters that Leo XIV — born at Mercy Hospital on the South Side and raised in South suburban Dolton — is a Sox fan.

The White Sox responded to the news with a message on the team’s scoreboard at Rate Field and posted it on social media along with video of John Prevost confirming his famous brother’s South Side fandom.

“Hey Chicago, He’s a Sox Fan!” the message read.

Cubs Executive Chairman Tom Ricketts later said the new pontiff is welcome to the Friendly Confines regardless of his loyalties.

“Not only would we welcome Pope Leo XIV to Wrigley Field, he could sing ‘Take Me Out to the Ballgame’ or, since three of his predecessors visited Yankee Stadium, including Pope Paul VI who delivered the 1965 ‘Sermon on the Mound,’ we would invite the pontiff to do the same at the Friendly Confines,” Ricketts said.

Masters had a similar thought.

“I’m going to invite him to celebrate Mass at Wrigley Field one day, which would be an amazing gift,” Masters, also known as the “Baseball Priest” said in a video shared by his parish.

And as for a future papal visit to Chicago? Masters says it’s “quite probable, given that he is from the area.”

More broadly, Masters thinks the first American pope is “going to be a real boost to faith in America.”

“Oftentimes you just think … the pope is somewhere over there in Europe, and it's a very distant place,” he said, “but having somebody with local connections just makes it more real.”

· Daily Herald staff writer Christopher Placek contributed to this report