The Chicago White Sox on Monday unveiled a mural in honor of Pope Leo XIV at Rate Field, where he and members of a local family cheered on the team in 2005 in their victory in the first game of the World Series that year.
The mural, placed on a pillar near Section 140 at Rate Field, shows the first American-born Pope, a Chicago native, dressed in his papal garb, and above him, a rendering of the photograph the then-Father Robert Prevost with his longtime friend, the late Ed Schmit, and Schmit's grandson, Eddie Schmit IV, cheering on the team, The Chicago Tribune reported.
"I don't want anyone to think he's a Cubs fan," Schmit said Monday. "He's not a Cubs fan. The Pope is a White Sox fan, and we have proved that."
Heidi Skokal, one of the elder Schmit's daughters, told the Tribune that her father got many calls from his old friend, "Father Bob," who was then in Peru, in the days and months before he died of cancer in 2020.
"'Father Bob, I know you're going to be the next pope. I may not be here to see it, but I'll definitely be looking down,'" Skokal recalled her father saying.
The photograph shown with the unveiled mural settled an argument that popped up after the Pope was elected, as it showed him in White Sox garb next to his friend, Schmit, a longtime season ticket holder. His seats remain with his family.
About a dozen members of the family were present for the mural's unveiling Monday, when they recalled the family's connection with the now-Pope, who officiated family weddings, worked at St. Rita High School, and remained close to the family for decades.
"There's other times I was here with Father Bob and my father, and we enjoyed the game, you know, and had a beer or whatever and watched the game and relaxed and just talked about everyday stuff," Eddie Schmit III said. "Father Bob was just a natural, and he's just humble. And he's just like us. He's an everyday guy, believe it or not."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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