About

Pope Leo XIV Chicago Memes, also known as Chicago Pope Memes, refers to a series of memes about the 267th Pope of the Catholic Church, Pope Leo XIV (formerly Robert Prevost), being from Chicago, Illinois, as well as the first Pope from America. Pope Leo XIV was humorously portrayed with Chicago stereotypes and cliches, spreading in memes on Twitter / X, Reddit and TikTok, among other social media sites, in early May 2025, following the Conclave's decision. In particular, a photograph of Pope Leo XIV at the 2005 MLB World Series in support of the Chicago White Sox went viral online, spawning viral discourse and praise.

Origin

On May 8th, 2025, it was announced that Cardinal Robert Prevost was to become the 267th Pope. He chose the name Pope Leo XIV (Pope Leo the 14th). He was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1955. He was raised in the nearby suburb of Dolton.^[1]

Currently, the first known viral post to joke about Pope Leo XIV being from Chicago was shared by X^[2] user @mountbellyache on May 8th, at around 1:16 p.m. EST. It referenced singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens' song "Chicago," reading, "A new Pope from Chicago, Illinois? Sufjan better get back in the studio," gaining over 43,000 likes in 12 hours (shown below).

Spread

Within minutes, more viral posts about Pope Leo XIV being from Chicago surfaced on the internet. For instance, on May 8th, 2025, X^[3] user @biz_socks tweeted a photo of a deep-dish pizza, writing, "New Pope serving the body of Christ at mass." The tweet received roughly 90,000 likes in a few hours (shown below).

Around the same time on May 8th, X^[4] user @RossRead tweeted a photo of Pope Leo XIV, adding a caption about the NFL rivalry between the Green Bay Packers and the Chicago Bears, reading, "'God bless everyone in the world, except Green Bay.'" In a few hours, the tweet received over 43,000 likes (shown below).

Other sports jokes surfaced on Reddit that same day, like a post from Redditor onoitsajackass to the /r/NFL^[6] subreddit, who said, "Chicago got a Pope before getting a 4,000-yard passer," gaining over 22,000 upvotes in 12 hours (shown below).

The joke was first tweeted by X^[11] user @HoosierSpeaker a few minutes before the Reddit post.

On May 8th, 2025, X^[5] user @RealRCIV tweeted a video of the Pope walking out to Chief Keef's "Love Sosa." It gained over 34,000 likes in eight hours (shown below).

Crazy that Leo the XIV made his entrance in the most Chicago way possible pic.twitter.com/MDbLpeSQGx

— Reginald IV (@RealRCIV) May 8, 2025

Also that day, TikToker^[7] @o_malley posted a video skit about the Pope being from Chicago, which showed him eating an Italian Beef sandwich. The video gained over 63,500 likes in a few hours (shown below).

2005 MLB World Series Photo

On May 8th, 2025, the Chicago Sun-Times^[8] published an article about a photograph taken during the 2005 MLB World Series between the Chicago Wite Sox and Houston Astros, in which Pope Leo XIV can be seen in the top left corner (shown below). The White Sox went on to sweep the Astros for the title.

The photo went viral on social media sites like X^[9][10] soon after.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References