Pope Leo XIV has received a special gift from former Chicago White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski.
The pontiff has been given the baseball from the final out of Game 1 of the 2005 World Series. It was unclear when exactly the exchange occurred, but Pierzynski posted pictures on social media on Thursday showing the moment at the Vatican.
“7 year old me, at my First Communion, would have never thought that I would get to meet The Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV,” Pierzynski wrote on Instagram. “I was honored to give him the last out ball from Game 1 of the 2005 World Series, the game he attended.”
Leo is a White Sox fan dating to his days growing up in Chicago. He was known as Robert Prevost or Father Bob when he went to the World Series opener 21 years ago, a 5-3 White Sox victory that ended when Bobby Jenks struck out Houston's Adam Everett with Pierzynski behind the plate.
There is a graphic installation at Rate Field that marks the section where the pope sat for Game 1. The White Sox went on to a four-game sweep for the championship.
The first pope from the U.S. in the history of the Catholic Church has received several sports-related gifts since he was elected last May.
He was given a pinstriped No. 14 White Sox jersey with “Konerko” and “Pope Leo” written on the back and signed by former White Sox first baseman Paul Konerko, who wore No. 14 during his playing career. He also has a bat that once belonged to Hall of Famer Nellie Fox, who spent most of his career with the White Sox.
Shortly after he became the pope, Leo was given a custom Chicago Bears jersey from Vice President JD Vance. He was presented with a Chicago Bulls jersey with No. 14 and “Pope Leo” on the back from Bulls radio broadcaster Chuck Swirsky in November.
The White Sox plan to pay tribute to Leo at their Aug. 11 game against Cincinnati, handing out pope-themed hats to fans. The hats are shaped like the pope’s miter, with the team’s sock logo in the middle.
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FILE - Pope Leo XIV delivers his blessing as he visits Pavia's Cathedral, northern Italy, on June 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno, File)
LITTLE BIGHORN BATTLEFIELD NATIONAL MONUMENT, Mont. (AP) — The quiet, wind-swept hills of the Battle of Greasy Grass, known to many as the Battle of Little Bighorn, are the setting for Native Americans commemorating the battle's 150th anniversary with horse rides, battle reenactments and a camp of hundreds of people this week.
The battle, one of the most famous and symbolically charged events in American history, marked its anniversary Thursday. Allied tribes came together on that hot day near the banks of the Little Bighorn River in present-day Montana to hand the U.S. Army a rare defeat as they fought to preserve their way of life in the face of westward expansion. Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer and more than 200 his troops were killed.
Reenactments will illustrate the battle. Horse riders from the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota and elsewhere traveled hundreds of miles to the Crow Agency area in Montana to mark the occasion. Families were encouraged to share their oral histories. At the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota, people planned horse races and traditional songs and dances.
Gathering at the battlefield area in Montana means “we’re still here,” said William Good Bird, a traditional singer from the Spirit Lake Dakota Nation in North Dakota who woke up the camp where hundreds of people were gathered from numerous tribes with a song and drumming.
“Today I am celebrating the victory of our people, celebrating my life as a human being and my spot on this earth,” he said.
The discovery of gold in the Black Hills in what is now South Dakota by a Custer expedition just years earlier spurred a military campaign against Great Plains tribes that aimed to push them onto reservations, or what were known then as agencies, said historian Dakota Goodhouse.
There were bigger, longer battles and other Native victories between March 1876 and June 1877, but Goodhouse said only the Battle of Greasy Grass — named by Native Americans for the slick grass along the river — gained national recognition because the commanding officer was killed.
At the time, the Lakota were one of the largest and most powerful tribal nations, with strong leaders in Sitting Bull and warriors like Crazy Horse. Native warriors quickly overwhelmed Custer's men as the U.S. forces were spread miles apart over the hilly area.
News of Custer's defeat stunned Americans, who were celebrating their country's centennial.
The federal government accelerated efforts to subdue resistance, bringing years of hardship and upheaval for Native Americans. Crazy Horse was killed in 1877, and starvation brought about the surrender of others in 1881.
Sitting Bull didn’t surrender as history books tell it, said Jon Eagle Sr., a former Standing Rock tribal historic preservation officer from the Hunkpapa band of the Oceti Sakowin.
“Our people say that he looked at his son Crow Foot and said, ‘My boy, if you live, you can never be a man in this world because you can never own a gun or a pony,’” Eagle said. “I think that he understood that things were going to change for his children, his grandchildren and those not yet born.”
Sitting Bull was killed with about a dozen other people when agency police attempted to arrest him in 1890.
Biographer T.J. Stiles described Custer as one of the most distinguished combat officers in the Army at the end of the Civil War. But he said the “Boy General” with his long hair and flamboyant battlefield wardrobe often bristled at the chain of command and did not take to the management side of leadership.
“Custer was someone who whenever he got into the frying pan, he immediately started looking for the fire,” he said.
In 1873, Custer was assigned to lead the Seventh Cavalry at Fort Abraham Lincoln, near present-day Bismarck, North Dakota. From there, he led military expeditions, including one that confirmed the gold in the Black Hills, a sacred place to the Lakota.
Seen in the U.S. as a tragic hero and memorialized for his military feats, Custer could also be considered progressive even as the federal government sought to displace Native Americans and stamp out Native languages through boarding schools, Goodhouse said. He learned to speak Arikara and Lakota and became fluent in sign language used by tribes in the region.
Still, as many Americans are celebrating the 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, for many Native Americans it's not a reason to rejoice.
“It’s just a mark to me of 250 years of injustice to the Native people,” Crow tribal member and reenactment coordinator Jim Real Bird said.
Eagle agreed: “That’s one of the things that we always tell our people when we come together, is they failed at their attempts to rub us out. We’re still here as ancient people deeply connected to our environment.”
For more than 30 years, reenactments featuring hundreds of warriors have marked the anniversary near the battlefield. The choreography is based on Northern Cheyenne oral history and highlights horsemanship and language preservation.
“All the other things that are Native American don't mean nothing if you don't know your language,” said Real Bird.
The atmosphere at the battlefield area was celebratory as hundreds of people from numerous tribes had gathered. Several hundred horse riders charged up a hill and circled at the top as they whooped and yelled. The sun shined on the battlefield area, a wide-open grassland with few trees, mountains in the distance.
Elders wore headdresses. People sang and played drums as flags flew from various tribal nations. The camp with dozens of tepees stood along the Little Bighorn River, with people there from tribes in the Dakotas and as far away as Washington state.
“This is our fuel for the year. We come here and this is a renewal for us, too, you know, personally,” said Theresa Long Turkey, of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe in South Dakota.
At Standing Rock, Eagle said the races honor the horse nation that carried their ancestors to victory 150 years ago. The commemoration also includes oskáte, a traditional celebration of oral histories, victory songs and tribal dancing.
“It's just an opportunity for us to share with the generations coming behind us that they’re descendants of a very powerful nation and ancient people that are still here despite everything that was done to us,” said Eagle, whose great-great-grandfather, Sunka, fought that day. His father, Charging Thunder, also was there.
Goodhouse recalled stories his grandfather would tell him of their ancestors who were in the Hunkpapa camp when troops attacked. His grandfather’s great-grandfather, Striped Face, was shot but mounted his horse and joined the fight.
“There’s this kind of energy there that still lives on because we have this direct narrative that was handed down,” he said.
Dura reported from Bismarck, North Dakota.
This story is published through the Global Indigenous Reporting Network at The Associated Press.
Spectators watch the charging event during festivities to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Battle of the Little Bighorn in Crow Agency, Mont., on Thursday, June 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Tailyr Irvine)
Tepees dot the campground during festivities commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Wednesday, June 24, 2026, in Crow Agency, Mont. (AP Photo/Tailyr Irvine)
Dawson Richards helps his father set up a tepee during festivities commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Wednesday, June 24, 2026, in Crow Agency, Mont. (AP Photo/Tailyr Irvine)
FILE - Sioux Indians, six of whom were present at the battle of Little Big Horn, where General George Custer and his soldiers were gathered for a reunion on Sept. 2, 1948 at Custer state park, in South Dakota's Black Hills. (AP Photo,File)
Riders wait for the horse ceremony to begin during festivities commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Wednesday, June 24, 2026, in Crow Agency, Mont. (AP Photo/Tailyr Irvine)
A man walks back to camp during festivities commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Wednesday, June 24, 2026, in Crow Agency, Mont. (AP Photo/Tailyr Irvine)
