XIV. Leó pápa és a telebank esete

XIV. Leó pápa egy egészen hétköznapi ügyet próbált elintézni saját maga: felhívta az otthoni bankját, hogy megváltoztassa a telefonszámát és a címét (a Vatikánra:) Olvassuk el angolul a hírt – csináltam hozzá szövegértési feladatot is.

Even the Pope Has Trouble with Customer Service

Most people have experienced the frustration of calling a bank and being put on hold, transferred between departments, or told that something simply cannot be done over the phone. It turns out that even the leader of the Catholic Church is not immune to this kind of everyday problem.

About two months after Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost was elected as Pope Leo XIV, he called his bank in Chicago to update his phone number and address. It seemed like a simple task – but it quickly became complicated.

The pope answered all the security questions the customer service representative asked him, but there was still a problem. To change his phone number and address, he was told he would have to visit the bank in person.

Pope Leo tried to explain his situation. He said it would be “difficult” because he was living “out of town” and simply could not get there. This, of course, was something of an understatement – the pope lives in Vatican City, Rome.

When that argument did not work, he decided to try a different approach. He asked the representative whether it would make any difference if he told her he was Pope Leo. She hung up on him.

The story was shared publicly by Father Tom McCarthy, a longtime friend of the pope, at an event in Naperville, Illinois in late April 2026. Father McCarthy said that when he heard the story, he laughed – and admitted he would have done exactly the same thing as the customer service agent.

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After the call ended so abruptly, the pope needed help. He turned to a fellow Augustinian priest, Father Bernie Scianna, who somehow managed to contact the bank’s president. However, even the president repeated the same policy: changes must be made in person, not over the phone.

When Scianna threatened to move the pope’s account to a different bank, the president quickly changed his position – saying the bank did not want to lose such a notable customer. Shortly after that, the bank made an exception and updated the pope’s information.

The pope’s final instruction was simple: “Don’t give the phone number out.”

The story went viral on social media and was picked up by news outlets around the world. Many people found it funny, but also surprisingly comforting. Father McCarthy said the unexpected attention made sense to him: “I think it’s just really connected with people – how normal Pope Leo is.” Father McCarthy summed it up simply: “He’s one of us.”

Based on the article of New York Times