Overview
- Mayor Brandon Johnson met privately with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican on Thursday, May 28, and then led a roughly 46‑member Chicago delegation into a group audience.
- Johnson presented a chest of Chicago items, including a Key to the City, Cubs and White Sox memorabilia, giardiniera and letters from families of detained immigrants, and formally invited the pope to celebrate Mass in Grant Park.
- Pope Leo asked about recent ICE deployments and their impact on Chicago neighborhoods, and Johnson described local rapid‑response teams that aid families during raids.
- Johnson said the pope's public apology for the Church's historical role in slavery and his stances on migrants and war reinforce Chicago's reparations and social‑justice priorities.
- The trip was funded and organized by World Business Chicago and included civic, business, religious and labor leaders, a move that could raise the mayor's national profile and lend moral weight to local policy fights.