Former White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski visited the Vatican recently and gave two surprise gifts to Pope Leo XIV. 

Writing on his social media account, the catcher, who was on the field for 2005 World Series, said: 

“7-year-old me, at my First Communion, would have never thought that I would get to meet the Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV,” adding, “I was honored to give him the last out ball from Game 1 of the 2005 World Series, the game he attended.”

“Hi, I’m A.J. Pierzynski,” the former major leaguer said as he introduced himself to Pope Leo XIV, as reported by The New York Times. 

The Holy Father didn’t miss a beat. “Oh, I know who you are,” he replied with a smile. “You don’t have to introduce yourself.”

It turns out that while the rest of the world knows Leo XIV as the global leader of the Catholic Church, he holds another title back in the United States: Chicago’s most prominent White Sox fan. Long before he was elevated to the papacy as the nation’s first American-born Pope, he was just a kid growing up on the South Side, falling in love with the grit and grind of Sox baseball.

In fact, he was in the stands for Game 1 of the historic 2005 World Series, watching from the crowd as Pierzynski anchored the defense behind the plate.

Knowing he was meeting a fellow South Side faithful, Pierzynski brought along the ultimate gift — a piece of memorabilia that had previously just been resting on his wall at home: the actual baseball from the final out of that very same Game 1.

The Pope’s reaction was pure, unfiltered sports fandom.

“Oh my gosh, he was like, ‘This is unbelievable,’” Pierzynski later recalled to The New York Times. “He was like, ‘No way, this is the ball?’ And he literally whispered, ‘I was at Game 2, too. But nobody knows that. They didn’t find me.’”

White Sox baseballs are a popular gift for the Pontiff.

The other gift presented to Pope Leo was a White Sox-themed rosary, presented on behalf of Catholic Atheletes for Christ. 

Known as “TheRosaryGuy” on Etsy, Kevin Workman recently learned that his handmade rosary would be given to the Holy Father, and it led him to tears. 

“When he sent me the message, I’ll be honest, I started crying,” Workman told the local press. "It was amazing. I’ve made rosaries for professional athletes, but this is big. This is really big."

As the audience wrapped up and Pierzynski’s family began to walk away, the former catcher couldn’t help but sneak in one last bit of baseball talk, mentioning that the current, surprising White Sox squad was sitting comfortably in first place.

The Pope just looked back at him with a knowing grin.

“Oh, I’m watching and paying attention,” the Holy Father said. “Don’t worry.”