Tennis, Twitter and marinated fish: Things to know about Pope Leo
Vatican City, Holy See: When Pope Leo XIV walked out onto the balcony of St Peter's Basilica, few among the crowd gathered below had much of an idea of Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost the man.
But, in the half-day since the Vatican unveiled the Catholic Church's first leader from the United States, notable facts have begun to emerge about the new pontiff.
Red Robes and White Sox
The new pontiff is a fan of the Chicago White Sox baseball team, whose supporters are now celebrating a spiritual victory against their city rivals the Chicago Cubs.
The Cubs tried to grab first base early, posting a message on their Wrigley Field stadium claiming: "HEY CHICAGO, HE'S A CUBS FAN!"
But the Sox scored a home run when Pope Leo's brother John Prevost told local broadcaster WGN: "He was always a Sox fan."
Leo XIV is also reportedly a fan of the Alianza Lima football XI, the Peruvian capital's soccer team, currently standing fifth in the Liga 1 table.
Leo is also a tennis player. According to Italian daily La Gazzetta dello Sport, citing "those who know him", the pope has an "excellent backhand and is a formidable competitor".
In an interview on the website of his Augustinian order to mark his elevation to cardinal, he said: "I consider myself quite the amateur tennis player. Since leaving Peru I have had few occasions to practise so I am looking forward to getting back on the court."
Church groundsman
When not pounding cross-court drives across the turf, Prevost might be tending it.
As a maths student at Philadelphia's Villanova University he also worked as a gardener at a local church.
"While he was in college, he had a little side job as a groundskeeper for one of our parish cemeteries," the city's Archbishop Nelson J. Perez told AFP, grinning.
"Amazing story, right? So the pope worked here."
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