Buffalo native Nick Sinatra has the distinction of being one of the first Western New Yorkers to meet the first American pope, Leo XIV. Sinatra, a board member of the National Italian American Foundation, visited Rome in early June as part of the foundation’s 50th anniversary.
The papal visit was arranged by the governor of Lazio, Italy, who escorted the group throughout their entire trip.
At the June 4 meeting, which was covered by the Vatican News service, the governor’s staff, joined the Italian American Foundation members and the papal staff, about 65 people total, in a receiving room at the Vatican, which was the perfect size for the group.
“It wasn’t clear to us what the structure was going to be, how much time he was going to spend with us,” Sinatra said, adding the meeting had only been confirmed a week earlier.
Pope Leo showed up 15 minutes late for the 9 a.m. meeting. He apologized, explaining that the Vatican schedules four different meetings for him at one time, “so everybody else has to wait, not him.”
Pope Leo opened with a statement in English. The Italian American chairman also made a statement. The pope gave a general blessing to the entire group. Then spoke to them all individually.
“He was very comfortable with us, it was very clear that he was comfortable with us in a group because he was informal in most of his interactions,” Sinatra said.
“There was no set time for how long each of us had to chat with him. It wasn’t like a receiving line where he was just shaking our hands and moving on. There wasn’t anybody on his staff pushing us through or pulling us if we were spending too much time. Some people spent 30 seconds there very quickly, said hello, introduced themselves, and shook his hand. Other people spent three or four minutes there talking to him and praying with him. It was fantastic. At the end when he had gone through every single person in the room, he did multiple different photo ops.”
Sinatra and Pope Leo talked about the National Italian American Foundation and the pope’s own heritage. The Chicago-born pontiff is one-fourth Italian.
“That’s something he just discovered,” Sinatra explained. “His grandfather on his father’s side was actually from Sicily. We chatted a little about that and how it was significant for us as an organization that has Italian American roots. He’s got German roots and a lot of other roots in his bloodline.”
During their personal conversation with Leo, Sinatra thanked him for renewing his faith.
“I thanked him for my renewed faith, personally, and I thanked him for renewing the Catholic Church in America. I’m very excited by what him being an American pope, what that could mean for the Church in America. I’m really excited about that.”
He also asked for a blessing for his family and the family of his employees at Sinatra and Company Real Estate.
After some more photos, the pope left to attend another meeting.
“He was very conversational. He felt comfortable with us. His demeanor and the way he talked to us was much less formal than I would expect,” Sinatra explained. “Myself and others attributed that to two things. One, he’s early in his papacy, so he may not feel the need to be so formal as he will over time as he meets with heads of state and things like that. More importantly, I think it’s his personality. He’s a guy from Chicago. He’s just a midwestern guy at his roots and that’s just the way he was.”
Sinatra described him as polite, saying he smiled a lot, and appears to be a servant leader in the model of Jesus Christ. “He made us feel it was more about our experience with the Lord and him versus him being the pope. Which was really fantastic.”
Despite nearly 20 years as bishop of Chiclayo, Peru, and receiving Peruvian citizenship, Sinatra said the Chicago-born pope is still all American.
“He really comes across like a Chicagoan, Midwestern member of the American Church. Like meeting with the cardinal of Chicago, because that’s how he acts. It was powerful in that respect because it felt so localized to us.”