VATICAN CITY — Chicagoans might be clamoring to see their home-grown pontiff, Pope Leo XIV, in person — but he’s unlikely to be coming back to the city anytime soon.

At least that’s what he told another former Chicagoan on Monday.

At the end of his first official papal audience with the world’s media — in which he called for the release of imprisoned journalists worldwide and again warned about the pitfalls of Artificial Intelligence — Leo stepped down from the stage and greeted several dozen VIP guests at the front of the auditorium, including celebrated journalists from Italy and elsewhere, Vatican aides, authors and other luminaries.

The guest he spent perhaps the most time with was Lester Holt, the NBC Nightly News anchor who previously was an anchor for 14 years at CBS2 News. The two chatted jovially for more than a minute.

 

Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

As Holt recalled in an interview on NBC Monday shortly after the exchange, he asked Leo:
“What’s the importance of having an American pope?”

The pope answered, “‘You tell me,’ and then offered an anecdote he’d heard that suggests people are coming back to the church because there’s an American pope,” Holt said.

Then Holt asked Leo whether he had any plans to head home to the United States or even Chicago anytime soon.

“And he said, ‘I don’t think so’,” Holt said.

That was too be expected.

“That falls in line with much we’ve heard,” Holt said. ” … He’s got a lot of work to do at the Vatican before we see him on the road.”

Today Show host Craig Melvin quipped that meeting was among “just two Chicago guys hanging out at the Vatican.”

Holt, 66, said the encounter was one of the most special moments of his long career. He is scheduled to sign off as the anchor of NBC Nightly News later this month, after more than a decade in the job.

“It’s certainly going to be in the highlight reel,” he said.

Cathleen Falsani wrote about the installation of Pope Benedict XVI as the Sun-Times religion reporter and columnist from 2000-2010. She is at the Vatican to cover the installation of Pope Leo XIV for Chicago Public Media.