A photo of Pope Leo XIV putting on a White Sox cap while greeting a newlywed couple outside the Vatican this week has gone viral online and caused a surge of pride in his native South Side of Chicago.
The gift came from a surprising source: A Haverhill couple who are diehard Red Sox fans.
Some Red Sox faithful might consider that a sin.
But Kelly and Gary DeStefano are pretty sure they have absolution.
They married at Sacred Hearts Parish in Haverhill on May 25 and traveled to Rome for their honeymoon. They hoped to join the “sposi novelli” audience for newlyweds seeking a blessing from the Holy Father. (Tickets are required and couples must be dressed in wedding attire, according to the Pontifical North American College.)
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But spots aren’t guaranteed, so a cousin dreamed up a backup plan to catch Pope Leo’s eye: put on the White Sox caps.
“It was like, maybe he’ll still see you, point you out in the crowd,” she told the Globe in an interview on Thursday after they returned home.
“It was kind of funny, you know, [since] we’re from Boston,” she added. “He even had a hard time finding the hat in Massachusetts ... and Gary was like, ‘I’m not wearing this hat.’ But then we did get in [to the sposi novelli], so we didn’t even have to wear them.”
By the time Pope Leo came over to offer his blessing, the hats had slipped her mind. He asked the couple where they were from, and her husband, Gary, bent down to kiss his ring.
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“And then Gary pulls [the hats] out from behind his back,” she said. “And it was just a surreal moment, to hear the pope laugh.”
In a video the couple shared with the Globe, Pope Leo, smiling, told the couple, “You’re going to get in trouble for this,” a playful nod to their devotion to the “other Sox” in the American League.
He removed his zucchetto and donned the cap, while Gary put on the other one.
After taking photos, the pope, who will be celebrated with a special Mass Saturday in Chicago at the White Sox stadium, gave the “blessed” hats back to take them home to Red Sox Nation.
“We’ll probably encase them in glass, maybe with a few news articles and a picture of the pope,” Kelly said. “It will be a wonderful story to pass on to our grandchildren.”
When asked if he’d ever wear a rival team’s hat for anyone else, Gary didn’t hesitate: “Absolutely not,” said the born-and-bred Boston fan. “No way.”
Rivalries aside, however, baseball is unifyingpastime. “It’s a national sport,” Gary said. By wearing the cap, the US-born pontiff is speaking to ordinary people — much like Pope Francis did with his well‑known love of soccer.
And with that gesture aimed at Americans for the first time, the logo on the cap doesn’t matter, Gary said.
“If the pope today went into the Chicago stadium [with the hat on], everybody there would roar," he said. “And if he came to Boston and went to Fenway Park with the Chicago hat on, they would still roar.”
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Kathy McCabe of the Globe Staff contributed to this report.
Rita Chandler can be reached at rita.chandler@globe.com.