Column: White Sox and Catholicism join hands to celebrate Pope Leo XIV with the best of both worlds

Those who can’t decide what to call the baseball stadium on 35th and Shields have an answer.

Pope Leo XIV, just over a month into his papacy and speaking to a crowd in a taped message, welcomed everyone to White Sox Park.

If you prefer that over Rate Field, don’t worry. The Pope does too.

It was evident as two worlds joyfully collided at Rate Field on Saturday.

White Sox fans and Catholics joined hands to celebrate the tie that strongly binds both in Pope Leo XIV, who was born Robert Prevost, grew up on the South Side of Chicago and became the first American-born Pope on May 8.

The baseball world was eternally present as if it were another game day. White Sox jerseys and apparel populated the 100-level concourse. Hot dogs in hand, fans proudly took photos with the cardboard standups of Pope Leo XIV all over the park. Fans tailgated in the Rate Field parking lots.

I saw Lucas Giolito, Frank Thomas, Minnie Minoso, Jose Abreu, Paul Konerko, Mark Buehrle, Tim Anderson, Yermin Mercedes, and Luis Robert Jr.'s jerseys proudly represented while walking around the concourse. Of course, there were plenty with No. 14 and the name "Pope Leo" on the back.

Sorry, President Obama. Pope Leo XIV has officially taken over as the face of the White Sox fanbase.

They were ready for a ball game. 

The Chicago Catholic world arrived in their Sunday best. Eagerly talking among themselves on the concourse like they were back in the rectory of their home parish. Friars, brothers, sisters, Augustinians and more warmly greeted those as they claimed their seats. Other members of the ordained got dressed for mass in locker rooms were turned into vestibule dressing rooms.

Even the White Sox’s "First Baseball Game" booth, where fans can get a certificate to commemorate their first baseball game, was shifted to a "First Mass" booth.

They were ready for mass. 

For whatever reason you were at Rate Field on Saturday, hot dogs and nachos were $5.

"I think I'm going to remember this moment as the sermon on the mound," Cardinal Blase Cupich said to open his homily.

The only discourse between the two came when considering how Pope Leo XIV was going to borrow the number 14. That belongs to White Sox legend Paul Konerko, whose number 14 was retired in 2014.

"He’s a hall of famer," I overheard on the concourse. "The pope is gonna have to pay him for that number."

With such a gathering from Chicago, there was going to be an overlap. Naperville native and Augustinian Brother David Marshall wrote and performed a recording of a song "One of Us," which was played before Pope Leo’s address to the crowd. Marshall’s mom, his dad told me, is a Cubs fan.

It was an afternoon of acceptance, for even the woman wearing a Pete Crow-Armstrong jersey and the man wearing a Detroit Tigers polo. All were welcome at Rate Field.

White Sox Executive Vice President and Chief Revenue/Marketing Officer Brooks Boyer spoke during the ceremonies about how Saturday was a way of bringing the two worlds together, as White Sox baseball and the Vatican share similarities. No, an understanding of suffering wasn’t what he meant.

Boyer meant something deeper than that. In a literal sense, they were celebrating one a world leader and the baseball fandom he has with it.

"He looks great in a White Sox cap," Boyer said.

Saturday was also a moment for White Sox fans to learn more about their face of the fanbase. Father John Merkelis, president of Providence Catholic High School and a high school classmate of Pope Leo XIV, spoke of how the Holy Father plays Wordle, taught him how to drive a stick shift, and could fix a carburetor. 

Merkelis also talked about how Pope Leo also has a Chicagoan sense of humor.

"He’s sleeping well because an American is not going to be a pope," Merkelis said Leo wrote to him in an email the night before the Conclave began.

In other words, when Pope Leo XIV isn’t too busy leading the Catholic Church, he’s just a normal Chicagoan who enjoys baseball.

Whether he answers the White Sox’s call to throw out the first pitch of a game in the future remains to be seen. That would mean another intersection of baseball and Catholic worlds.

It would also mean another intersection of Pope Leo’s message, which is the promise of hope.

"We have to look for ways of coming together and promoting the message of hope," Pope Leo XIV said in his message to Rate Field on Saturday.

For White Sox fans, that message correlates with the hope the Sox will be a winning team in the future. 

If the franchise finally does begin winning, the fanbase will rally around the figure that plenty can say brought divine intervention to a team that was the worst in baseball history just a year ago.

Both the baseball and Catholic worlds conjoining on Saturday was a sign it’s welcome to count Pope Leo XIV as one of us.

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