How he chooses to bring his own legal acumen to bear on each of these three situations will say a great deal about the early direction of his pontificate.

Supporters of Pope Leo XIV gathered Saturday, not in a cathedral or a church, but a baseball stadium the pope once frequented years as Robert Francis Prevost.

In his first words directed specifically to Americans, Pope Leo XIV told young people on Saturday how to find hope and meaning in their lives through God and in service to others.

Thousands went to the first American pope’s old haunt on the South Side to hear a message from the man they once knew as Robert Francis Prevost.

Chicago held a celebration on Saturday at the home of the White Sox to fully embrace the city’s connection to the new leader of the Catholic Church.

"What does the pope think about us being related? That's my question," one cousin said. "What does he think of us because we're Afro American?" She plans to write a letter inviting Leo to her home if he ever visits New Orleans.

Pope Leo XIV stressed the importance to society of sport in his Angelus address in the Vatican on Sunday. Sport was more than physical achievement, but could also "become an important means of reconciliation and encounter: between peoples and within communities,

Recognize that God is present,” he said in a recorded video to a crowd gathered at the home stadium of the White Sox.

The Chicago-born pope addressed a crowd of 30,000 in a live-streamed message from the Vatican: "Build up community [and] friendship as brothers and sisters."

The pope urged Catholic faithful to be a "light of hope," to serve others, and to make the world a better place.

The new pontiff is showing he is like everyone else, and that he can preach from both on high to down low. Read more at straitstimes.com. Read more at straitstimes.com.