Before Bill DeWitt III could explain why he brought a Cardinals jersey all the way to Vatican City as a gift for one of the world’s most famous White Sox fans, Pope Leo XIV interjected.
“He said, ‘My dad was a Cardinals fan,’” DeWitt recalled Friday. “He was pretty animated about it.”
A quick trip to Rome this week and a meeting with the Pope made possible by his wife, Ira DeWitt, allowed the Cardinals’ club president to present an official, Cardinals home white jersey. The jersey had the Pope’s name on the back and the No. 25. A Chicago native, Pope Leo grew up a White Sox fan and attended a 2005 World Series game on the South Side of Chicago. The White Sox pained mural painted of him at their ballpark, Rate Field, and noted the date he attended a game there.
The first United States-born Pope, Pope Leo spent a formative year in St. Louis back in the 1970s. He entered a novitiate of the Order of St. Augustine, in the Province of Our Lady of Good Counsel, and prepared for committing to become a priest. He was one of four Augustinians in St. Louis at the time, according to an archiodese directory.
Ira DeWitt founded and runs SAINT Candles, a company that makes prayer candles. She also hosts a podcast, Beyond Saint, and has an app, Saint Catholic Lifestyle. Ira DeWitt works with Rome Reports, a news and content provider based there in Italy and working at Vatican City.
The DeWitts attended the Papal Audience this past Wednesday and afterward were invited to greet to the Pope. They presented the jersey and a candle as gifts.
Bill DeWitt III introduced himself as from the St. Louis Cardinals and was about to explain to the White Sox fan why he knew to bring a Cardinals jersey when the Pope let him know first.
“I wanted to tell him, ‘I, too, manage Cardinals,’” DeWitt said.
In 1999, Pope John Paul II visited St. Louis, and while he received a Blues sweater as a gift, his time in St. Louis included time spent with Cardinals slugger Mark McGwire, who a year earlier had reset the single-season home run record.
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Derrick Goold | Post-Dispatch
Lead baseball writer
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