Pope Leo XIV arrives for his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square, at the Vatican, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. Among those who spoke with him was Stamford’s Bobby Pavia.
Gregorio Borgia/AP
STAMFORD — Imagine finding out you’re invited to meet Pope Leo XIV while you’re in the middle of dinner at Olive Garden. That’s what happened with Stamford Rep. Bobby Pavia.
Pavia said he received an emailed response from the Vatican on March 21 after mailing a letter in January requesting to meet Pope Leo.
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Getting that email, “was like an out of body experience,” he said.
Stamford Rep. Bobby Pavia visited Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican on April 8. Pavia is photographed at the Trevi Fountain in Rome, Italy on April 9.
Patricia Palacio
Pavia, who represents District 17 in the Springdale neighborhood, said he had wanted to meet the pope to ask for guidance on how to promote civility within local politics.
“It is my mission, both in my role as a Public Servant and as an educator for young people, to teach and spread Civility,” Pavia said in the letter. “It would be a profound honor for me, as both a public servant and a person of faith, to meet with Pope Leo to receive feedback, and to offer my respects in person and receive his Apostolic blessing.”
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And given the pope’s ongoing disagreement with President Donald Trump about the war in Iran, Pavia couldn’t help but reflect on the ironic timing of the situation.
“I’ve always preached civility and use that in my actions, or try to. We’re all human,” he said. “And I feel like civility in all forms of life is kind of disappearing with social media and it’s all coming from our elected leaders, locally, and obviously, nationally.”
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A papal visit
Pavia, who is a practicing Roman Catholic, said he was seated a couple of rows away from the pope as he spoke in front of about 70,000 people on April 8 in St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City.
“At the end, they guided the priests up to shake the pope’s hand really quickly, and then it was my turn,” he said.
Pavia said he’d prepared a few gifts for the pope.
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He said the first gift was a gold coin that said ‘Blessed be the peacemakers, for they should be called children of God,’ and the second was a Stamford pin that officials receive after they get elected.
However, he said his last gift, a printed quote from Pope Leo’s favorite movie, the 1946 film “It’s a Wonderful Life,” was the best one. It said, “No man is a failure who has friends.”
“I gave that to him, and he smiled and laughed, and it was, like, an enduring moment,” Pavia said.
He described meeting the pope as “brief, but it was very meaningful.” Pavia paraphrased what he was told in the two minutes they spoke, and said Pope Leo encouraged him to continue his work in Stamford and offered him a blessing.
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“It was very simple, but it was one that carried a lot of weight,” Pavia said.
President versus pope
Pavia, a Democrat, said he greatly respects Pope Leo and said his recent remarks about how Trump is handling the war in Iran is the personification of what it’s like for a leader to show civility during conflict.
“I felt like this is a moral authority in the world; and he’s new, and he’s a very humble guy and he’s from America, which is interesting because we have the first American pope and an American president who’s attacking him,” Pavia said.
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According to The Associated Press, Pope Leo recently spoke out against the war in Iran while on a papal flight to Algeria.
“To put my message on the same plane as what the president has attempted to do here, I think is not understanding what the message of the Gospel is,” the pope said.
The president hit back, criticizing Pope Leo’s remarks. Trump posted a now-deleted meme of himself portrayed as Jesus, which he later said was intended to be an image of him as a doctor helping people. Trump declined to apologize to the pope.
“(The pope) was very much against what I’m doing with regard to Iran, and you cannot have a nuclear Iran. Pope Leo would not be happy with the end result,” Trump said. “I think he’s very weak on crime and other things, so I’m not going to apologize.”
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Pavia said his shared moment with Pope Leo was significant because it gave him hope during a time where he finds himself caught between radically heightened political tension, which he said many elected officials experience, both locally and nationally.
“(The pope is) an inspiration for me because he’s not taking the bait; he’s never once mentioned Trump by name,” Pavia said. “And it also just makes me feel like I’m not crazy, like this is doable, to not sell your soul and stoop to levels of these crazy attacks that are lies, and I’m talking about both sides. … It gave me more assurance that I’m doing the right thing here and that being the loudest one in the room is not the way to do this.”
Includes prior reporting by The Associated Press.
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