Mayor Brandon Johnson led a Chicago delegation to the Vatican on Thursday and handed Pope Leo XIV an official key to the city, White Sox and Cubs apparel and a jar of J.P. Graziano’s hot giardiniera. The visit added another hometown chapter to a papacy that has already been marked by a steady stream of gifts, public gestures and Chicago pride.
Pope Leo XIV, who was inaugurated as pontiff one year ago, has become a familiar recipient of offerings from around the world as he has hosted audiences with world leaders, celebrities and other notables. But Chicago has made a point of leaning into the connection. Earlier this year, the city’s archdiocese celebrated at Rate Field, where Leo wore a White Sox cap on June 14, 2025, and later Cardinal Blase Cupich presented former White Sox player Paul Konerko with a jersey signed by the pope during a ceremony in Chicago on Saturday, July 12, 2025.
The gift exchange in Rome fits a broader Vatican tradition that is part symbolism, part diplomacy and part local pride. Popes receive countless presents each year, and many are kept for posterity, auctioned off or sent to organizations that support unhoused and other vulnerable people. That makes the choice of gift more than a ceremonial detail, especially when the pope in question has already made clear how he sees himself: Leo took a vow of poverty as a young man when he entered the Augustinians.
Chicago’s delegation did not arrive empty-handed. Along with the city key and the sports gear, it brought a jar of one of the city’s familiar foods, a small reminder that the pope’s roots still matter in the public imagination. The effort echoed another Vatican visit in November 2025, when Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and the First Lady met Pope Leo XIV and brought their own set of Chicago and Illinois items.
At that meeting, the First Lady presented Leo with a drawing by Yesenia Diaz titled “Praising My Way to Wholeness.” The Pritzkers also gave him an Abraham Lincoln biography and a four-pack of Chicago-brewed beer from Burning Bush Brewery. Their choices, like the city’s gifts this week, suggest that in Chicago the pope’s old neighborhood remains a source of both affection and political theater.
That theater has extended beyond gifts. Marco Rubio, when choosing a present for the pope, said he found himself asking, “What to get someone who has everything?” He settled on a crystal football. The question lands because Leo is not presenting himself as a collector of luxury objects. He has been seen wearing vintage white Nike sneakers, a small but telling detail that has helped shape his public image alongside the comparison often drawn with Pope Francis’ own plainspoken frugality.
The contrast is why the present exchange keeps drawing attention beyond the novelty of Chicago sports memorabilia at the Vatican. Leo has also been warning in recent months about artificial intelligence, saying in his message on the subject that AI is never neutral, a point that adds another layer to his image as a pope who is willing to speak plainly about power, technology and the choices people make with both. For Chicago, though, Thursday was simpler than that: a hometown delegation brought its pope a set of gifts, and the Vatican stage gave the gesture a global audience.
What happens next is likely less about the objects than the afterlife of them. Some papal gifts end up in storage, some in museums or auctions, and some in charitable channels. Leo’s Chicago presents may follow that path. For now, they do what they were meant to do: remind everyone watching that this pope still has a place where the story began.
