ROME (OSV News) — Pope Leo XIV may carry the weight of guiding 1.4 billion souls, but the Holy Father is not above a good dad joke.
Since his election, the 70-year-old Chicago native has deployed a steady stream of quips, puns and one-liners in the past year that would feel right at home around any family dinner table. In honor of Father’s Day June 21, here’s a look at some of the Holy Father’s best dad jokes about sports, retirement and the Holy Spirit.
Serving up tennis humor
Pope Leo’s sense of humor was on display almost immediately after his election, which coincided with Rome hosting the Italian Open tennis tournament.
When asked at one of his first public events whether he would participate in a charity match, Pope Leo joked, “We can’t invite Sinner,” a play on the surname of the world No. 1 Jannik Sinner, who was playing in the tournament.
It was not the only tennis joke up the pope’s sleeve. When Sinner visited the Vatican later that week, Pope Leo, an avid amateur tennis player, cracked a joke that his white cassock would be perfectly suited for Wimbledon. However when then 23-year-old Sinner suggested the two play right there in the Vatican hall, Pope Leo shut it down with a father’s instinct, saying “Here we’ll break something. Best not to!”
A Holy Spirit homily joke
Pope Leo has shown he is not above opening a homily with a joke either. Celebrating Mass in September for the opening of the General Chapter of the Order of Saint Augustine in Rome, he joked in English before giving the homily in Italian, “for those of you who understand English but do not understand Italian: pray for a gift of the Holy Spirit!”
The pope then went on to give a heartfelt reflection expressing his hope that even if the Augustinians did not receive “the gift to understand or speak all languages,” they would receive “the gift to listen, and the gift to be humble, and the gift to promote unity, within the Order and throughout the Order, throughout the Church and the world.”
Pope scores with a soccer pun
At Madrid’s Santiago Bernabéu stadium, home to the Real Madrid Football Club, where 80,000 Catholics had gathered for prayer with the pope June 8, Pope Leo could not resist the opportunity to use a soccer pun.
In an unscripted comment at the start of his speech, Pope Leo said, “I think that for a player, scoring a goal in this stadium is a major milestone in life. But … today, the Church in Madrid scored an amazing goal that will go down in history!”
Pope Leo also joked about his own soccer team allegiances when meeting with an Italian soccer team from Naples, telling the Napoli players “didn’t want to applaud because in the press it is said that I am a Rome fan,” adding, “not everything you read in the press is true!”
Correcting algorithms and Cubs fans
Over a meal with Spanish bishops in Madrid, Pope Leo turned to the subject of artificial intelligence, joking that when he consulted an AI system, the chatbot responded, “Pope Francis would say …,” prompting him to cut in: “I think there is another pope now.”
And when someone at a general audience shouted support for the Chicago Cubs, the crosstown rivals of Pope Leo’s beloved White Sox, the Holy Father’s response was swift and to the point, “They lost!”
Careful with that applause
As he was getting used to the cheering crowds that come with being pope, the introverted Pope Leo turned to humor after moments of prolonged applause in the first audiences of his pontificate, saying, “They say when they clap at the beginning it does not matter much, if you are still awake at the end and you still want to applaud … thank you very much.”
He made a similar joke after he was greeted with a long standing ovation at the start of his first speech to Vatican employees and members of the Roman Curia. “When the applause lasts longer than the speech, I will have to make a longer speech! So… be careful!” he said.
Retirement jokes
Nothing screams dad joke more than a joke about retirement. On the papal plane returning from Beirut, Pope Leo acknowledged that a journalist on board was preparing to retire. “A year or two ago I too thought about retiring someday,” he told her. “You have received that gift apparently; some of us will continue to work.”
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