Attendees of the Archdiocese of Chicago’s 14 June celebration of the election of its native son, Pope Leo XIV, said they appreciated the pope’s video message for young people that premiered at the event, and the way it brought the local church together.
The event included a celebration followed by Mass at Chicago’s Rate Field, the home park of the Chicago White Sox, Pope Leo XIV’s favorite baseball team.
Under a bright sun, more than a dozen priests and bishops led by Chicago Cardinal Blase J Cupich concelebrated a special Mass at midfield in thanksgiving for Pope Leo’s 8 May election.
From the ambo, Cardinal Cupich looked around the stadium filled with tens of thousands of people. “Wow. I think I will remember this moment as ‘the sermon on the mound,'” he said in a tongue-in-cheek reference to Jesus’ famous Sermon on the Mount recounted in Matthew 5-7.
Cardinal Cupich then preached a homily on people’s inherent dignity, inviting the faithful to “live authentically” and taking a forceful stand against the country’s immigration policy.