Mayor Brandon Johnson said Wednesday he plans to use his visit with Pope Leo XIV to enlist from the homegrown pontiff, who has apologized for the Catholic Church’s role in slavery, support for the fight for reparations.
The pope used his first papal encyclical to apologize for the role the church played in legitimizing what he called the “scourge of slavery,” and failing to condemn it for centuries. He called the Vatican’s record a “wound in Christian memory.”
The papal apology was a welcome surprise for Black American Catholics, activists and scholars who have long demanded that the Catholic Church go beyond rote apologies for the involvement of individual Christians and atone for its own role in the colonial-era trade in human beings.
Before boarding a flight to Rome for his visit with the pope, Johnson was asked whether he intends to ask Leo to use his pulpit to support reparations for local descendants of African-American slaves.
“That’s an important conversation… Absolutely… Yes. I want to be very clear about that,” Johnson said.
The mayor said he plans to begin that difficult conversation by thanking the pope for recognizing “the harm that slavery caused across the globe” and in Chicago.
Noting that America is just over a month away from celebrating its 250th birthday, Johnson said, “This nation is not what it is without the free labor and the forced labor of Black people.”
Johnson said the pope’s apology and long-awaited recognition of the social and economic wounds that still linger from slavery is “very much aligned with” his own ongoing effort to “repair the harm that has been caused by slavery.”
“The 400 years of harm will not be repaired in one mayoral term,” Johnson said. “It’s going to be incumbent on all of us as we approach this next season — a season in which the Voting Rights Act that was secured by the blood, sweat, tears and pain of Black folks that ultimately provided opportunities for everyone — it is only right that we have substantive conversation about how we repair that harm. It’s not enough to simply recognize that harm. We have to heal from it.”
Johnson is leading a large delegation of business, political and civic leaders to Rome during the final days of the Illinois General Assembly’s spring session.
The mayor has so far accomplished little in Springfield, but he challenged those who would question the timing of his trip to Rome.
“I am on top of everything,” he said. “I have a team. We have individuals that are in Springfield whether I’m there or not… Conversations happen all the time with a variety of legislators. That work continues.”
In addition to trying to kill the bill that would give the Bears the property tax break the team needs to move to Arlington Heights, Johnson is pushing back against Gov. JB Pritzker’s plan to reduce the share of state income taxes earmarked for local governments. He’s also waging an uphill battle for a tax on digital advertising.
“[This] encounter that I’m going to have with the highest profile religious leader on the planet is also moving our agenda forward,” Johnson said. “That conversation is not separate and apart from the work that’s happening in Springfield or City Council or anywhere else.”
Noting that Pope Leo also used his encyclical to issue a sharply-worded warning about artificial intelligence “and the impact that could have on workers,” Johnson said, “Do you see the connection? And so, I think the people of Chicago will appreciate a mayor [who] can be in both places at the same time and connecting the work.”
The mayor acknowledged that anything can happen in closing days of a legislative session. But he’s continuing to hold out hope for his long-stalled plan to build a domed lakefront stadium adjacent to Soldier Field, with help from $900 million in hotel tax revenue and $1.5 billion worth of state-funded infrastructure improvements.
“How are we voting on something that would give property tax relief to a corporation — and the corporation that wants the property tax relief has not put together a traffic study. There’s no study around the infrastructure. In fact, we don’t even know how they’re going to fully fund the stadium that would be privately owned?” Johnson said. “Let’s just put both deals on the table and see which one is most responsible for taxpayers.”
