Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson flew a delegation of more than 40 people to the Vatican on Thursday to meet with Pope Leo XIV, and he packed gifts designed to send a political message. Among the items Johnson handed the pontiff: a hat reading "Immigrants Make America Greater," a sanctuary city pin from Southwest Community ICE Watch, and letters from families of detained immigrants.
The meeting, first reported by Fox News, also brought along George Floyd family attorney Antonio Romanucci, Chicago Teachers Union president Stacy Davis Gates, multiple city aldermen, United Airlines director Kristopher Anderson, and dozens of other civic figures. Johnson presented Pope Leo with a key to Chicago and a Chicago Cubs hat, which the Pope, a noted White Sox fan, declined to wear, joking that "he was already wearing a hat."
But the lightest moment of the visit could not disguise the heavier purpose. Johnson's office made clear the delegation "conveyed their wishes to work with the Pope on political issues." The gifts themselves were the tell: sanctuary city pins, pro-immigration slogans, and letters from families caught up in federal enforcement. This was not a pastoral pilgrimage. It was a lobbying trip in vestments.
Johnson also delivered a formal written invitation asking Pope Leo to return to his hometown and officiate a Holy Mass in Grant Park in 2027. The letter invoked the memory of Pope John Paul II's 1979 visit to Chicago, when an estimated 1.5 million people gathered in the park for Mass.
Johnson wrote to the pontiff:
"Your Holiness, you were a young priest-in-training at the time. Perhaps you were there. Perhaps you would consider a repeat Papal visit nearly 50 years later to share your own message of hope, unity and service."
Johnson called October 5, 1979, the date of John Paul II's visit, "the most spiritually inspiring day in Chicago [history]." The mayor's appeal leans on the Pope's Chicago roots. The Washington Times reported that Pope Leo XIV was born Robert Prevost in 1955 on Chicago's South Side in Bronzeville, grew up in suburban Dolton, and studied theology at the Catholic Theological Union of Chicago.
The Washington Times also noted that Johnson's is at least the second official U.S. invitation Pope Leo has received. Vice President JD Vance previously extended one as well, though the political context of that overture has been considerably different.
The inclusion of Antonio Romanucci, co-counsel with Ben Crump in the George Floyd family's lawsuit against the city of Minneapolis and officers Derek Chauvin, Tou Thao, Thomas Lane, and J. Alexander Kueng, raised eyebrows. That case, described as a "record lawsuit," became one of the most politically charged civil rights actions in modern American history. Romanucci's presence in a Vatican delegation led by a sitting Democratic mayor is not an accident.
Neither is the presence of Stacy Davis Gates, the Chicago Teachers Union president who has been one of the most vocal progressive labor leaders in the country. The CTU under her leadership has pushed well beyond traditional collective bargaining into broader political activism on housing, policing, and immigration.
Taken together, the delegation reads less like a civic goodwill tour and more like a roster of progressive movement leaders seeking the moral imprimatur of the papacy for their domestic policy fights. The Associated Press reported that Johnson views Pope Leo XIV as a potential ally on social justice and migration, framing that aligns the Vatican visit squarely with the mayor's political brand.
Pope Leo XIV has already waded into American political waters on multiple occasions. He called on the Trump administration to seek an off-ramp in the Iran conflict, drawing a sharp response from Washington.
Vice President Vance, for his part, has not been shy about pushing back. He publicly warned the pontiff to stay out of American public policy, a rare and direct rebuke that underscored the tension between the Vatican and the current administration.
When the White House did engage the Vatican diplomatically, it chose Secretary of State Rubio rather than Vance to make the trip, a decision that itself carried a message. And the Pope's own policy ambitions have extended beyond geopolitics. His first encyclical demanded sweeping AI regulation, signaling a willingness to insert papal authority into secular governance debates far beyond the traditional scope of Catholic social teaching.
Into that charged environment steps Brandon Johnson, a mayor whose city faces surging violent crime, a migrant crisis that has strained city services, and a public school system locked in perpetual fiscal turmoil. Johnson's answer to those problems, apparently, is to fly to Rome and hand the Pope a hat that says "Immigrants Make America Greater."
What the mayor did not bring to the Vatican is worth noting. He did not bring a plan to address the nearly 40,000 migrants who have arrived in Chicago since 2022, straining shelters and city budgets. He did not bring answers for Chicago residents in neighborhoods like Woodlawn and Englewood who have asked why city resources flow to migrant housing while their streets remain dangerous. He did not bring accountability for a city government that has struggled to keep its own fiscal house in order.
Instead, he brought symbolism. A sanctuary city pin. A slogan hat. Letters from detained immigrants' families. And a 40-person entourage including union bosses, civil rights lawyers, and corporate executives, all flown to the Vatican on a trip whose cost to Chicago taxpayers remains unspecified.
Breitbart reported that Johnson sees the Pope as a key ally on social justice and migration, a framing that makes the political calculus explicit. The mayor is not seeking spiritual counsel. He is seeking a partner in his policy fights against federal immigration enforcement.
There is nothing wrong with a Catholic mayor visiting the Pope. There is nothing wrong with inviting the pontiff to visit his hometown. But when a mayor uses a papal audience to advance a domestic political agenda, complete with branded merchandise, activist pins, and a delegation stacked with progressive allies, the visit stops being about faith and starts being about politics.
Catholic bishops have already found themselves defending Pope Leo's public statements against criticism from administration officials who believe the pontiff has overstepped. Johnson's visit only deepens that dynamic, positioning the Vatican as a backstop for progressive policy goals that cannot survive democratic scrutiny at home.
Pope Leo, for his part, offered no public response to Johnson's political overtures. The only remark reported from the pontiff was his quip about the Cubs hat. Whether that silence signals discomfort, diplomacy, or agreement remains unclear.
The open questions are telling. What specific political issues did Johnson's office raise? What was the Pope's reaction to the sanctuary city pin and the immigration letters? Who paid for the delegation's travel? None of these details have been disclosed.
Brandon Johnson governs a city where residents are leaving, where businesses are closing, and where public safety remains a daily concern for working families. The problems facing Chicago are not problems that can be solved in Rome. They require competent, accountable governance at City Hall, the kind that prioritizes results over photo opportunities.
Flying a delegation of progressive allies to the Vatican to lobby the Pope on immigration and social justice may play well on the national left. It does nothing for the Chicagoans who elected Johnson to fix their city, not to audition for a role on the global stage.
When your city is struggling and your answer is a transatlantic lobbying trip with branded hats, the problem isn't your messaging. It's your priorities.
