When Pope Leo XIV was selected in May as the next leader of the Catholic Church, his hometown, Chicago, erupted in shocked delight. There were joyful newspaper headlines (“DA POPE!”), impromptu gatherings at parishes across the city, and a “Pope-A-Roni” pie marketed by a local pizza joint.
On Saturday afternoon, the city will have a chance to formally celebrate together for the first time. The occasion is a festive program and Mass organized by the Archdiocese of Chicago and hosted by Rate Field, the home of the White Sox.
The event on the city’s South Side was designed as “an opportunity to say that there’s a lot of good that happens in Chicago,” said Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, who will speak at the event and preside over the Mass. “I hope it’s a moment when people in Chicago can be proud of being from Chicago.”
More than 30,000 tickets to the event sold out within days of the announcement last month, organizers said. Some tickets quickly appeared on secondary markets for more than $1,200, according to The Chicago Sun-Times. (The White Sox, who are in last place, average fewer than 17,000 fans a game.)
“This city as a whole is in love with our new pope because he is of us,” said Bob Reiter, president of the Chicago Federation of Labor, a network of labor unions that worked to distribute thousands of tickets to union members. Leo’s selection has been particularly electrifying to the labor movement, Mr. Reiter said, because he chose a name echoing Leo XIII, the turn-of-the-century pontiff sometimes called the Pope of Labor.
The program on Saturday includes music, prayer, speeches and Pope Leo’s first public address to an American audience, in the form of an almost eight-minute video recorded at the Vatican.
June 14 was chosen because it was the first Saturday that the ballpark was available with no major competing events in the city. An earlier date for the Mass was rejected because it conflicted with a Crosstown Classic baseball game and a Beyoncé concert.
But the event arrived at an extraordinary moment for the country. Military vehicles are streaming into Washington for a lavish parade ordered by President Trump, while National Guard troops have been deployed to the streets of Los Angeles. Large protests have been planned in all 50 states under the slogan “No Kings.” In Chicago, thousands of people are expected at Daley Plaza, four miles north of the ballpark.
Cardinal Cupich said in an interview on Friday that the date was not chosen as a provocation to President Trump, whose policies he has criticized. (President Trump’s birthday is also Saturday.) But the cardinal said he planned to address the rights of immigrants in his homily at the ballpark.
Leo’s video message was recorded more than a week ago, and has been described as a message to young people around the world.
Other participants include a representative of the White Sox, and the choir from Leo High School on the South Side, an all-boys Catholic school that appeared this week on “America’s Got Talent.”
After the program and a time of prayer, the event will transition into a formal Mass, led by Cardinal Cupich and a leader of the Augustinian order, to which Pope Leo belongs. The archdiocese is the country’s third largest, serving about two million Catholics.
Volunteers include greeters, a 200-person choir and nearly 500 lay ministers and ushers to assist in the distribution of Communion throughout the ballpark.
“When you’re planning a party for 30,000 of your closest friends, it is a major, major undertaking,” said Bishop Lawrence Sullivan, vicar general for the archdiocese, who has been involved in the planning. If it rains heavily, the Mass portion of the event may be canceled. As of Friday evening, the forecast was for mild temperatures and partial sun.
One aspect that has never been in question is the location of the celebration. Pope Leo grew up in the south suburb of Dolton, Ill., just outside the city limits, and has been described by those who know him as a dedicated Sox fan. He was captured by television cameras in the stands of the ballpark watching Game 1 of the World Series in 2005. This week, he was photographed sporting the team’s black-and-white cap with his white papal cassock at a general audience at the Vatican.
(The ballpark itself has undergone more name changes than Pope Leo, formerly Robert Prevost. Known as Comiskey Park until 2003, it was U.S. Cellular Field, then Guaranteed Rate Field, and then last year became simply Rate Field. In interviews about the event this week, many longtime Chicagoans referred to it as “Comiskey.”)
The archdiocese has emphasized that all are welcome at the celebration. That includes Catholics, non-Catholics and even Cubs fans.
“It’s very apropos that Cub fans have to come to Comiskey to get some religion,” Mr. Reiter said.
Ruth Graham is a national reporter, based in Dallas, covering religion, faith and values for The Times.
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