Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has extended a personal invitation to Pope Leo XIV, urging the pontiff to return to his native city in 2027 for a historic visit.
The invitation was delivered during a private meeting between Johnson and the Pope at the Vatican on Thursday.
In a letter handed to the pontiff, Mayor Johnson evoked the memory of Pope John Paul II’s visit to Chicago and his Mass in Grant Park on October 5, 1979, which Johnson described as “forever remembered as the most spiritually inspiring day in Chicago history.”
Johnson, who grew up as the son of a pastor, wrote, “Your Holiness, you were a young priest-in-training at the time. Perhaps you were there. Perhaps you would consider a repeat Papal visit nearly 50 years later to share your own message of hope, unity and service.’’
The mayor proposed that Pope Leo XIV celebrate Mass in Grant Park in 2027, underscoring Chicago’s status as home to one of the largest Catholic populations in the United States.
This marks at least the second official invitation for Pope Leo XIV to visit the United States, following an earlier overture from U.S. Vice President JD Vance shortly after Leo became pope last May.
Pope Leo XIV, born Robert Prevost in 1955 in Chicago’s South Side neighborhood of Bronzeville, spent his formative years in suburban Dolton, where he attended Mass and elementary school at St. Mary of the Assumption.
He later pursued theological studies at the Catholic Theological Union of Chicago in Hyde Park and taught in local Catholic schools, cementing his deep ties to the city.
Mayor Johnson gifted the pope dozens of items inspired by his hometown during the visit, including sports merch and a jar of spicy giardiniera peppers from iconic Chicago grocer and sandwich shop J.P. Graziano, local NBC affiliate WMAQ reported.
The full list of items included:
- Chicago White Sox hat with the Italian Flag, JP Graziano Giardiniera — 2 hot 2 mild From Ownership
- An Immigrants Make America Greater from Chicago sister cities international program
- The pope’s parent’s diplomas from DePaul University from President Robert Manuel
- Pope Leo Cubs Jersey and two Cubs hats from The Cubs organization
- Chicago Flag, Chicago White Sox hat with the Italian flag, Chicago tote bag, and ceremonial Chicago street sign from the City of Chicago
- Honey from the Chicago Cultural center roof from DCASE
- Brass tray with the Chicago lakefront etchings, 3 Chicago flag field notes, a World Business Chicago tote bag from the City of Chicago and World Business Chicago
- Two “Everything dope including the pope comes from Chicago” T-shirts from Sherman “Dilla” Thomas
- Cornerstones book and a poster of stained glass from M.A.A.F.A Redemption Project Church and Rev. Dr. Marshall E. Hatch Sr.
- Letters from parishioners at St. Benedict the African in Englewood, written by a 5-year-old and 9-year-old and their mom with expressions of gratitude for his leadership
- Frango Mints from Catholic Charities
- Hat and jersey from Chicago Sky
- Hat from DePaul University
- Letters from families of detained immigrants
- Hat from Loyola University
- Bloodworks by Bishop Horace Smith, MD
- United Airlines plane from United Airlines
- Southwest community ICE watch pin
- Sanctuary city pin
- Resisting tyrants since pharaoh and White Sox kippah and White Sox pope t-shirt Mishima Chicago
- Silver dove necklace representing peace, Image of the Eucharist procession in Broadview so the notes from families detained by ICE. Coalition front spiritual and public leadership
- ‘I am somebody’ sweatshirt, Keep Hope Alive from Rainbow Push
- Union strike pin in a silver box books and letter from St. Mary’s College
- The Legacies of Sr. Madeleva Wolff, CSC, edited by Jessica Coblentz and Susan Mancino
- Saint Mary’s College, Amanda Divine and Colin-Elizabeth
- ‘God Bless the Westside’ t shirt from Alderman Ervin
- Operation Breadbasket: An Untold Story of Civil Rights in Chicago, Martin L. Deppe
- Keeping Hope Alive: Sermons and Speeches of Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Sr., edited by Grace Ji-Sun Kim