Pope Leo XIV meets with former Obama adviser David Axelrod. Could he meet with former president soon?
Pope Leo XIV on Thursday met with David Axelrod, a longtime Democratic strategist and former senior advisor to former President Barack Obama.
The meeting has many wondering if the pope might soon have a formal meeting with Obama himself.
Leo was born in Chicago and raised in south suburban Dolton. While Axelrod was born in New York, like Obama, he attended the University of Chicago, and after working as a reporter at the Chicago Tribune in the 1980s, he later helped Obama get elected president in 2008.
While the Vatican did not provide any details on Axelrod's meeting with Leo on Thursday, six weeks ago, Obama made it clear he'd like to meet his hometown pope.
"Being president, or even being an ex-president, I can kind of meet everybody. So, I've met a lot of folks. The person who I have not yet met, and that I'm looking forward to meeting – and I hope I get an opportunity sometime in the future – is the new pope, who's from Chicago, and a White Sox fan," Obama said on Bryan Tyler Cohen's podcast in February.
Axelrod hasn't shared details of his meeting with the pope, but his former boss is two months out from opening the Obama Presidential Center on the South Side of Chicago.
Meantime, the pope has been as vocal as any predecessor about American wars. In his Easter Sunday message, he said he was "asking people of goodwill to search always for peace and not violence, to reject war, especially a war which many people have said is an unjust war, which is continuing to escalate and is not resolving anything."
In recent months, the Vatican has said the pope is unlikely to come to the U.S. in 2026, because it's an election year. So, what's really going on?
Christopher Hale, who is writing a book on the pope and American politics, said all signs point to the meeting Obama wanted.
"It's a surprise. Obviously, [Axelrod is] not someone you'd expect to meet with Pope Leo XIV," Hale said. "We're not 100% sure that this is connected to that, but the timing is auspicious."
In November, Gov. JB Pritzker traveled to the Vatican to meet with the pope. A number of Illinois mayors also have met with Leo since he became pontiff.
President Donald Trump still has not met Leo, who insiders said is keenly aware of how the political winds blow and how meetings and messages are perceived.
"Pope Leo XIV is an American. He consumes American media vociferiously. He's an iPhone user. He's not disconnected from reality," Hale said.
Axelrod did not respond to a request for comment on his meeting with the pope.