Even the Pope can have customer service issues. Pope Leo XIV, just two months after being elected head of the Catholic Church, personally called his bank in Chicago to change the phone number and address registered on his bank account, after he had moved to the Vatican.
According to a story told by the Reverend Tom McCarthy, a childhood friend of the Pope, Leo XIV introduced himself by his civil name, Robert Prevost, and correctly answered all the security questions asked by the bank employee.
However, the employee insisted that changes could only be made if the customer physically appeared at the bank's Chicago branch.
"I can't come to Chicago," the Pope is said to have said, before adding humorously: "What if I told you I was Papa Leone?"
But the employee, thinking it was a joke or a fraud attempt, hung up on him.
The story, originally published by the New York Times, also brings to mind the well-known episodes of Pope Francis, who after being elected Pope insisted on paying for his own hotel and personally calling people, introducing himself simply with the words: "I am the Pope."
According to Reverend McCarthy, Pope Leo XIV's problem with the bank was later resolved thanks to the intervention of another American priest who knew the bank director. As for the employee who hung up on the Pope, he commented ironically: "Can you imagine being known as the woman who slammed down the Pope's phone?"
