Overview
- Mayor Brandon Johnson held a private audience with Pope Leo XIV in the Vatican Apostolic Library on Thursday and gave the pope a Key to the City plus an invitation to celebrate Mass in Grant Park.
- Johnson led a roughly 46-to-50 person delegation funded and organized by World Business Chicago that included city officials, business leaders, faith figures and labor representatives.
- The pair discussed immigration and the city’s response to federal deportation actions, the pope’s public opposition to the U.S. war in Iran, and the Catholic Church’s apology for its role in slavery with reparations as a topic of interest.
- Johnson described the meeting as a moral partnership — saying the pope’s pulpit and his pen can work together — while stressing the encounter produced alignment of priorities rather than any binding agreement.
- The visit raises Chicago’s international profile by linking municipal policy aims to the pope’s global platform and comes after public tension between Pope Leo XIV and President Trump that prompted recent U.S. diplomatic outreach.