Three hours after Pope Leo XIV was elected the 267th pontiff of the Catholic Church, friend Lisa Solava emailed him from her home in southwest suburban New Lenox, where she and her husband, Rich, were panic packing for a flight to Rome the next morning.“We’re arriving Friday, but I guess we can’t have you out for pizza, huh?” she wrote.The new pope, her friend of more than 20 years whom she still thinks of as “Father Bob,” quickly responded: “No, but maybe you could come in.”
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Three hours after Pope Leo XIV was elected the 267th pontiff of the Catholic Church, friend Lisa Solava emailed him from her home in southwest suburban New Lenox, where she and her husband, Rich, were panic packing for a flight to Rome the next morning.“We’re arriving Friday, but I guess we can’t have you out for pizza, huh?” she wrote.The new pope, her friend of more than 20 years whom she still thinks of as “Father Bob,” quickly responded: “No, but maybe you could come in.”