Image via Fabrizio Maffei / Shutterstock
Chicago just made Catholic history, and it happened at Rate Field, home of the Chicago White Sox! 😲 This Morning Air episode with John Morales and Fr. Burke Masters (the chaplain for the Chicago Cubs) is your all-access pass to the special Pope Leo Mass that happened recently. Let’s break it down, play-by-play:
Picture this: a full baseball stadium, packed with thousands, lit up not by home runs but Holy Spirit fire. Chicago showed all the joy for one of their own: Pope Leo XIV, the new Holy Father from the South Side. 🔥
There were:
🎶 Live music
🙌 Testimonies from people who knew Pope Leo personally
📺 A video message from the Pope himself
🕊️ A Mass presided over by Cardinal Cupich
Fr. Burke was in the stands, soaking it all in. 😄
💬 Pope Leo’s Message
The main event was Pope Leo’s video message to the youth of the world:
✨ “Christ, who is our hope, calls all of us to come together… to be beacons of hope in the world.”
💗 “We do nothing to earn God’s love… and yet He pours it out anyway.”
That’s Gospel gold. You could feel the love in the stadium. According to Fr. Burke, the crowd was glued to the screen.
He’s compassionate. And he’s all about bringing people to Jesus. 🙏
Fr. Burke brought three busloads of people from his parish to the Mass. On the way, they stopped at Pope Leo’s childhood home. Humble beginnings. Huge grace.
⚾ Cub Fan? Sox Fan?
So… Pope Leo is a Sox fan (confirmed by his own brother), but his mom was a Cubs fan. He’s uniting both sides of the town.
And Fr. Burke? As the Cubs chaplain and former White Sox minor-leaguer, he’s declaring a truce. This special Mass united fans across Chicago: Cubs, Sox, young, old, everyone. That’s the Church.
🙌 Kids Are All in on This Pope
Young people are fired up. They might not realize just how historic it is to have a pope from their city, but they sure felt the joy.
Fr. Burke says they were excited, hopeful, and ready for what Pope Leo’s is going to bring to the Church… including the idea that he could come back to Chicago for real (maybe even throw the first pitch?)
This was a spiritual moment. The kind that says:
“Yeah, the Church is alive. Yeah, it’s still relevant. And yes, Jesus is still calling people to be world-changers.”
So, whether you’re a Cubs fan, a Sox fan, or just a person trying to hang on…God’s got you. He’s pouring out His love, no matter what.
And Pope Leo is leading the charge… with Christ as our hope, and Chicago in his heart.
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