Inspired by a viral video of a successful pizza delivery to Pope Francis in 2015, Jayden Remias embarked on a personal mission to hand-deliver a pizza to Pope Leo XIV.
Remias explains that the goal, which was decided just over a month ago, goes beyond pizza delivery.
Instead, he hopes to inspire his audience to trust God in the unknown and have faith when things seem impossible.
Remias said that after seeing ChurchPOP's video on social media showing Pope Leo XIV accepting a cookie from a young girl in the papal audience, he believed it was definitely possible to deliver an authentic Chicago-style pizza to Pope Leo.
“I thought to myself, dang, the pope is pretty chill. What else would he be down for?”
Remias shared the first steps in planning his pizza delivery with his YouTube audience, including some obvious limitations such as time and money.
Almost a month into his quest, things took a turn. Remias knew that his friend Madeline Daley would attend the Jubilee of Youth and the Jubilee for Digital Missionaries and Influencers in Rome, so he asked her to help.
Remias met Daley between Columbus and Cincinnati. She took the personal-sized pizza with her to Rome on dry ice.
Daley attended the Wednesday papal audience on July 30 as planned. In an exclusive interview with ChurchPOP, Daley said that she arrived at 5:45 a.m. to secure a prime spot, with a sign and pizza in hand.
Her sign read, “We have Aurelio’s pizza.”
Aurelio’s Pizza is a Chicago staple. It was the perfect way to capture the attention of the Chicago native pontiff!
“He lit up when he saw the logo,” Daley told ChurchPOP.
Pope Leo XIV gave her a thumbs-up and requested that his guards retrieve the pizza.
Here is some footage of this incredible encounter with Pope Leo:
Daley told ChurchPOP about a brief time in which the mission was almost ruined entirely.
While staying with her family in an apartment in Rome during the Jubilee of Youth, the pizza was taken by housekeeping prior to the audience.
“Ultimately, my mom said she prayed, ‘Jesus, I know you don’t deny your mother when she asks you to do something, so Mary ask Jesus to bring the pizza back,’” Daley explained.
Moments later, the pizza was secured, and their journey continued.
“We were confident that God gave us the chance to really give [the pizza] to the pope,” she added.
Upon the successful pizza delivery, we asked Daley how she felt about being a part of this mission.
“I did not think it was possible and was pretty sure that I was going to let Jayden down, but throughout the week at the Jubilee for digital media missionaries, people like Christopher West, Truthly AI, and Elizabeth Busby were hyping me up and telling me it was possible. After getting the pizza back from the landlord of our apartment, I knew that God was watching over this mission and had greater plans.”
Remias released a video recap of his pizza delivery mission on Instagram.
His caption reads,
“As I continue to unpack what God has been doing through all of this, I’ve come to a deeper realization that the gifts we have are meant to communicate God’s love to the world, for each individual person. By a silly act of delivering Pope Leo his favorite pizza from his hometown, we see in a silly way how specific God loves us and the extent He will go to show us.
If we just listen to the voice of God and follow where He leads, EVEN when the outcome is uncertain, we are living out His mission. That’s what He asks of us. To show up, to be faithful, and to bring His love into the world however we can.”