The Chicago-born pontiff sent the Chicago team “the Almighty’s abundant blessings.”
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Pope Leo XIV sent a letter blessing his favorite baseball team before the Chicago White Sox brought the smoke in a playoffs-opening win Tuesday over the Houston Astros.
“I willingly invoke the Almighty’s abundant blessings upon you and your loved ones,” Leo wrote in a message shared Tuesday by the team.
The letter, dated Sept. 9, arrived just as the team was set to play in the American League wild card playoffs series on Tuesday night. The Sox beat the Astros, 6-3.
The Catholic leader, formerly Robert Francis Prevost — or just Bob to friends and family — grew up on the South Side of Chicago before he became a priest, bishop and, since May 2025, pope.
As the first U.S.-born pope, he has been warmly embraced by the nation’s Catholics and made no secret of his love for the White Sox, a South Side team who are sometimes overshadowed by the Chicago Cubs, the city’s other Major League Baseball franchise.
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Leo made his first address to U.S. Catholics about a month into his term in a video message played on giant outfield screens before about 30,000 fans gathered at Rate Field, the White Sox’s stadium.
The letter the Sox received from the pope was a thank-you note to the team related to an August game where fans got free Sox-themed pope hats.
The hats didn’t quite work, as the team lost. The letter appears to have brought better results.
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