Pope Leo sells out US event clashing with parade on Trump’s birthday

Sto­ry by Martha McHardy — Newsweek — Newsweek — MSN

Pope Leo XIV has helped sell out a sta­di­um show in Chica­go with a promised vir­tu­al appearance—scheduled for the same day as a major mil­i­tary parade in Wash­ing­ton, D.C.

With­in the first 15 min­utes of tick­et avail­abil­i­ty, more than 9,000 peo­ple request­ed seats for the Chica­go gath­er­ing. By the end of the first day, that num­ber had climbed to 20,000. As of Fri­day, the $5 tick­ets were com­plete­ly sold out. The event will be streamed live online, although CatholicTV has not con­firmed whether it will air the broad­cast.

Why It Matters

Pope Leo’s expect­ed involve­ment in the Chica­go event, which will be streamed online, will draw huge inter­est and will divide some atten­tion away from the Trump-backed mil­i­tary parade the same day, the pres­i­den­t’s birth­day.

The pope, in his first address to world diplo­mats, said the dig­ni­ty of migrants had to be respect­ed, poten­tial­ly putting him­self on a col­li­sion course with the Trump admin­is­tra­tion, which has stepped up enforce­ment of immi­gra­tion law, argu­ing vot­ers’ con­cerns on the top­ic have long been ignored.

What To Know

The pon­tiff is set to appear on big screens at Rate Field, home of Major League Base­bal­l’s Chica­go White Sox, on June 14.

“Although Pope Leo XIV will not be present in Chica­go for the event, he has announced that he will be par­tic­i­pat­ing remote­ly from Rome, with a video mes­sage to be played at the gath­er­ing,” the Vat­i­can’s news ser­vice said in a June 2 release pro­mot­ing the event.

That same date, Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump’s birth­day, Wash­ing­ton D.C. will play host to a major mil­i­tary parade cel­e­brat­ing the U.S. Army’s 250th birth­day.

Ronald Rea­gan Wash­ing­ton Nation­al Air­port will be forced to shut down for sev­er­al hours on June 14 to accom­mo­date the parade, affect­ing more than 100 flights and thou­sands of pas­sen­gers, accord­ing to The Wash­ing­ton Post.

The New York Times reports the parade will fea­ture 28 M1A1 Abrams tanks (each weigh­ing 70 tons), 28 Stryk­er armored per­son­nel car­ri­ers, more than 100 oth­er mil­i­tary vehi­cles, 6,700 sol­diers, 50 heli­copters, 34 hors­es, two mules, and one dog.

Notably, the Army did not hold a parade for its bicen­ten­ni­al in 1975.

While the pon­tif­f’s mes­sage will be deliv­ered from Rome, com­men­ta­tors not­ed the sym­bol­ism in the tim­ing. “A bit of coun­ter­pro­gram­ming there,” said MSNBC’s Jonathan Lemire. “But I will say, when the Pope does come for real in the flesh—Chicago. Mil­lions of peo­ple.”

John Heile­mann, speak­ing along­side Lemire, added: “The coun­ter­pro­gram­ming point remains, Lemire, because the truth is—for Amer­i­ca and Trump’s mil­i­tary parade in Wash­ing­ton, if you don’t live in Wash­ing­ton, that’s a tele­vi­sion spec­ta­cle. If you don’t live in Chica­go, the Pope’s doing a video mass there at Rate Field. It’s the same thing for those of us who live in New York. They’re both just TV shows. And, you know, that’s the def­i­n­i­tion of coun­ter­pro­gram­ming.”

The parade in Wash­ing­ton, mean­while, is being pro­mot­ed as a patri­ot­ic trib­ute to the U.S. Army’s 250th birth­day. A May 21 state­ment from the event orga­niz­ers said it aims to “show­case the Army’s mod­ern capa­bil­i­ties” and “inspire a new gen­er­a­tion to embrace the spir­it of ser­vice, resilience, and lead­er­ship that defines the Unit­ed States.”

Crit­ics say the event is exces­sive and polit­i­cal­ly charged. “You know, there are so many rea­sons that you might want to push back on this mil­i­tary parade. All of them have been dis­cussed before. There’s a very kind of Kim Jong Un vibe to it,” Heile­mann told Lemire.

“It’s obvi­ous­ly going to be a kind of a night­mare, logis­tics-wise, for Wash­ing­ton, D.C. The streets are going to get all torn up. They’re going to be fill­ing in pot­holes from the dam­age that gets done for months to come.”

Trump and Pope Leo’s Clash Over Immigration

Since becom­ing the pon­tiff, Pope Leo has clashed with Trump—most notably over immi­gra­tion pol­i­cy.

In one of his first major address­es as pope, U.S.-born Pope Leo XIV sig­naled a clear break from Trump’s immi­gra­tion stance, urg­ing respect for migrants’ dig­ni­ty and com­pas­sion for those seek­ing a bet­ter life abroad.

Speak­ing to diplo­mats at The Vat­i­can, Leo reflect­ed on his own roots as a descen­dant of immi­grants and a for­mer mis­sion­ary in Peru. “My own sto­ry is that of a cit­i­zen, the descen­dant of immi­grants, who in turn chose to emi­grate,” he said, adding that all people—“citizens and immi­grants alike”—are equal­ly wor­thy of dig­ni­ty and pro­tec­tion.

Leo’s mes­sage con­trasts sharply with Trump’s vow to deport mil­lions of undoc­u­ment­ed immi­grants. The late Pope Fran­cis also clashed with Trump over immi­gra­tion, once say­ing the pres­i­dent was “not Chris­t­ian” for want­i­ng to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico bor­der.

Leo’s com­ments sug­gest that the Church under his lead­er­ship will con­tin­ue to advo­cate for migrant rights. Before his elec­tion, Leo—then-Cardinal Robert Prevost—had pushed back on U.S. Vice Pres­i­dent JD Vance’s claim that Catholic the­ol­o­gy pri­or­i­tized car­ing for one’s own over oth­ers, a state­ment Pope Leo report­ed­ly dis­agreed with.

In May, Pope Leo’s broth­er John Pre­vost told The New York Times that his broth­er was “not hap­py” with Trump’s immi­gra­tion pol­i­cy, adding that he “won’t just sit back.”

“I know he’s not hap­py with what’s going on with immi­gra­tion. I know that for a fact. How far he’ll go with it is only one’s guess, but he won’t just sit back. I don’t think he’ll be the silent one,” John Pre­vost said.

What Happens Next

Gates for the Chica­go event will open at 12:30 p.m. on Sat­ur­day, June 14, with the pro­gram set to begin at 2:30 p.m. The day will con­clude with a Holy Mass at 4 p.m., led by Car­di­nal Blase Cupich, Arch­bish­op of Chica­go.

Tick­ets are still avail­able for Pres­i­dent Trump’s parade.