When a bank rep hung up on the Pope…
It’s a story that was narrated by Rev. Tom McCarthy—a friend of Pope Leo XIV—at a recent talk titled ‘Pope Fiction.’ This is how one report summarized it:
Two months into his pontificate, Pope Leo XIV called his bank in South Chicago to change his phone number and address.
The former Robert Prevost answered all his security questions posed by the teller, but there was still a problem.
To change his phone number and address, he was told he’d have to show up in person.
“‘Well, I’m not going to be able to do that,’” said Pope Leo, according to his longtime friend, the Rev. Tom McCarthy, who told the story April 29 to the Fishers of Men at Saints Peter and Paul in Naperville.
“‘We can’t do it over the phone?’” the pope asked, according to McCarthy. “‘I already gave you all the security questions.’”
After that, he tried pulling rank.
“Would it matter to you if I told you I’m Pope Leo?” the pope apparently asked.
Click.
“She hung up on him,” McCarthy said. “Could you imagine being known as the woman who hung up on the pope?”
So, the pope made some more phone calls.
He reached McCarthy’s classmate, the Rev. Bernie Scianna, who “somehow” got someone who reached the bank’s president, McCarthy said. The bank’s president reiterated the bank’s policy: Customers must change their phone number or address in person, not over the phone.
When Scianna threatened to move Pope Leo’s account to a different bank, the president said the bank didn’t want to lose the pope’s account.
Shortly after that, the bank followed through, and changed the information on Pope Leo’s account.