The games Popes love

For Francis, sport was more than a game or a pastime. It was a vernacular, and soccer was his dialect. He was fluent and it showed. He recognised in sport the potential to communicate in what he called a universal language that "extends across borders, language, race, religion and ideology; it possesses the capacity to unite people, together, by fostering dialogue and acceptance."

- CARMEN M. NANKO-FERNÁNDEZ

The online archive of his pontificate contains well over 60 sport-related audiences, messages and letters, including video greetings on occasions such as the 2014 FIFA World Cup and Super Bowl LI in 2017.

The world of sport is “a constellation of many stars,” Pope Francis told La Gazzetta dello Sport, the Italian daily sports newspaper, during a wide-ranging interview in January 2021.

On April 21, 2025, that world lost, if not one of its brightest stars, then certainly one of its highest-placed advocates in Francis. In his youth, Francis was only ever a street athlete, but he was an avid and lifelong sports fan, especially when it came to soccer. In fact, Francis incorporated his love of the beautiful game into his outlook as pope — for him, sport was a way to communicate with people from all backgrounds and all corners of the globe.

With Leo XIV now installed as Francis' successor, that sporting theme could continue in the Vatican, though the center of gravity may migrate from soccer to baseball. As befitting a US pope, Leo is known to be a fan of the American pastime, in particular his native Chicago White Sox.

Always 'un cuervo!'

Long before the papacy, even before his first steps toward priesthood, for Jorge Mario Bergoglio — the boy who would go on to become Pope Francis — there was his hometown sports club, Buenos Aires' San Lorenzo de Almagro.

From pulpit to pitch: Pope Francis used sport to get his message to a wider world — that could continue with baseball-loving Leo XIV.

It was "part of my cultural identity," Francis later said. So much so that he maintained his club membership throughout his life.

That became news upon his death, when a photo of his club card went viral. Argentine sports fans noted that his membership card number, 88235, coincided with his age, 88, and the moment of his death in Argentina time: 2:35am.