Cathleen Falsani
“White Sox or Cubs?”
Those were the first words out of Pope Leo XIV’s mouth when he greeted Jason Perash in a receiving line at the Vatican’s Paul VI Audience Hall Monday morning.
“Uh, Sox,” answered Perash, a 46-year-old attorney and sometimes freelance journalist who presented the new pontiff with a Rawlings Official Major League Baseball and asked him to sign it.
Pope Leo XIV, who is reportedly a lifelong Sox fan, complied, inscribing the ball in blue ink with “Leone PP XIV”—his official papal autograph in Latin—right on the sweet spot.