{"id":24340,"date":"2025-05-13T18:42:12","date_gmt":"2025-05-13T18:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/24340\/"},"modified":"2025-05-13T18:42:12","modified_gmt":"2025-05-13T18:42:12","slug":"pope-leo-xiv-appears-to-confirm-favourite-football-team-after-chanting-with-fan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/24340\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope Leo XIV appears to confirm favourite football team after chanting with fan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/pope-leo-xiv\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Pope Leo XIV;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Pope Leo XIV<\/a> has confirmed his favourite football team is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/roma\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Roma;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Roma<\/a> after engaging with a fan.<\/p>\n<p>The first US leader of the global Catholic Church responded to a Giallorossi supporter by repeating the popular phrase in the capital \u201cForza Roma!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>A senior member of his religious order, who has known Pope Leo XIV for four decades, had detailed how the 69-year-old is an avid sports fan.<\/p>\n<p>Originally from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/chicago\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Chicago;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Chicago<\/a>, he is also a fan of the White Sox baseball in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/mlb\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:MLB;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">MLB<\/a>, and the viral footage of his interaction with an Italian fan appears to have confirmed Father Joseph Farrell\u2019s claim.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s a regular tennis player. He would come up and play on our grounds once a week at least,&#8221; the Vicar General of the Augustinians told Reuters on Friday. &#8220;He is (AS) Roma all the way.<\/p>\n<p>While Roma did not confirm his affiliation, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/serie-a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Serie A;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Serie A<\/a> side did welcome the new pontiff after his election.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>A statement on social media read: &#8220;AS Roma joins in rejoicing with Rome and the world following the election of Pope Leo XIV, and wishes him all the very best for his papacy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While the White Sox, currently enduring a testing period in the franchise\u2019s history since winning the World Series in 2005, have also welcomed Pope Leo XIV.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cProud moment for Chicago,\u201d White Sox manager Will Venable said. \u201cIt\u2019s awesome.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI get it,\u201d Venable added after claims that Pope Leo XIV was a Chicago Cubs fan. \u201cI think we all want the pope on our side, so I certainly understand. But I\u2019m glad he chose the right team.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>The White Sox said they sent a jersey and a hat to the Vatican after the announcement. The organization also congratulated the new pope in a scoreboard graphic that was shown before last Friday\u2019s first pitch.<\/p>\n<p>The White Sox are last in the AL Central this season, a year after they went 41-121 to break the post-1900 major league record for losses in a season. So they welcomed a reason to celebrate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ll take it,\u201d Venable said with a smile. \u201cIt\u2019s great to have him on our side, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pope Leo XIV has confirmed his favourite football team is Roma after engaging with a fan. The first&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24341,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2379],"tags":[5,138,10319,49,2561,2138,10318,10317,4,6606,6531,396,2562,998],"class_list":{"0":"post-24340","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-white-sox","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-chicago-cubs-fan","11":"tag-chicago-white-sox","12":"tag-chicagowhitesox","13":"tag-fan","14":"tag-favourite-football-team","15":"tag-forza-roma","16":"tag-mlb","17":"tag-pope-leo","18":"tag-pope-leo-xiv","19":"tag-white-sox","20":"tag-whitesox","21":"tag-will-venable"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114501998894857044","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24340\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}