The Mayor of Chicago's delegation has visited Rome, including a private audience with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican. Several Members followed the news closely and asked who had been invited.
The Society notes — and considers it relevant — that the Pontiff is, by birth and upbringing, a Chicagoan. The historical record on this matter is settled: Bronzeville, then Dolton, then, eventually, the Holy See. The Society further notes the Pontiff's documented preferences in baseball, deep-dish establishment, and parish, none of which the Society shares but each of which the Society respects as established personal record.
On the Delegation
The Chicago party in Rome is reported at approximately fifty Members of the city's civic, business, and religious leadership. The Society reviewed the published manifest with interest and confirms that several names are familiar to its records — including the President of DePaul, certain retail executives whose tenure the Society has had cause to note in passing, and a number of figures from the city's sister-cities apparatus. The Society's posture toward the delegation as a whole is one of cautious approval.
The Society does not, as a rule, comment on gifts exchanged between heads of state and visiting officials. It notes only that the Key to the City of Chicago is an instrument of considerable weight, that it is offered seldom, and that its presentation to a head of the Catholic Church by a sitting mayor is the kind of detail the Society quietly approves.
A Word on Ashley
Ashley Munroe received an invitation to accompany the delegation. She considered it overnight, then called Jill to discuss what she would have to rearrange.
Ashley regrets that she was unable to accept.
The Society shares, with her permission, the substance of her response. Ashley had previously and publicly committed to remain in Lincoln Park through the end of May — an undertaking she made at the Winter Standards Meeting in February, and from which the Society does not release its Officers Emeritus on less than ninety days' written notice. The commitments were specific. They included:
- Her standing 6:00 AM East Bank Club arrangement, second machine from the right, which the Society has previously documented and from which Ashley does not depart for civic engagements abroad of less than a full week's notice;
- Her scheduled attendance at the rescheduled second seating of the Spring Champagne Brunch;
- A standing appointment at the Webster Avenue Sephora to confirm a Charlotte Tilbury restock notification, which had reached her on Tuesday;
- The arrival, on Friday, of a piece of furniture from a North Halsted establishment that the Society does not name, the receipt of which Ashley does not delegate to staff and never has;
- The Standards Committee's previously-scheduled review of certain matters concerning the Clybourn Corridor, at which Ashley's vote — though non-binding for an Emeritus — is, in practice, dispositive.
"I would have very much liked to be present. Lincoln Park, however, had asked first."
Jill offered to cover the committee meeting. Ashley appreciated this, but the furniture delivery remained unresolved. She sent her regrets.
Forward
If the proposed papal visit to Chicago goes ahead, Members would like to attend together. Whitney has asked everyone to wait for confirmed arrangements before selecting seats.
The Society does not travel to the Pope. The Pope, when next in the village, will be received correctly.