Pope Leo suggests people may return to the church because of an American pope

Pope Leo XIV told NBC News' Lester Holt at the Vatican on Monday that people may come back to the church in part because it now has an American-born leader.

Pope Leo XIV told NBC News' Lester Holt at the Vatican on Monday that people may come back to the church in part because it now has an American-born leader.

Holt was part of NBC News' team covering a news conference for some 6,000 journalists from around the world when he conducted a brief interview with the new pope.

“At the end of his remarks, he stood up and he went into the crowd,” Holt said on NBC’s “TODAY” show. “He came down several aisles, and eventually came to me, and I asked him I think the question a lot of people have, ‘What’s the importance of having an American pope?’ And he said to me, ‘You tell me.’”

Pope Leo XIV meets NBC News' Lester Holt at the Vatican on Monday.Vatican Media“Then he went on to offer an anecdote he had heard that suggests that people are coming back to the church because there is an American pope,” Holt said.

As for whether the Chicago-born leader is coming back to visit his hometown soon, that seems unlikely. “I don’t think so,” he told Holt.