During an audience with Pope Francis earlier this week, club owner Gayle Benson gave him with a customized New Orleans Saints jersey, according to the team.
The white road jersey had the moniker “Papa Francesco” and the number 1 on the back.
The team did not specify when the papal audience took place. According to a spokesman, Benson met with Pope Francis and representatives of the Papal Foundation while on a 10-day tour to Italy, Vatican City, and Germany, where she is “sharing her vision for investment in New Orleans and the renovation of the iconic St. Louis Cathedral.”
Benson has already travelled to Germany, where he met with Gunther Schmid, the country’s head of foreign trade, as well as representatives from the German Ministry of Economic Affairs, Labour, and Tourism on Wednesday (April 17).
While in Rome, Benson spoke with Italian economic and tourism officials to promote business development in Louisiana and New Orleans.
“This has been a very productive trip promoting and talking investment and tourism for our state of Louisiana,” Benson said in a statement issued from Stuttgart. “There is a lot of excitement among the people I met in Rome who want to help us with the restoration of the Saint Louis Cathedral.
“There is a lot of interest in investing in and doing business with our state in Germany.” NFL football is popular in Germany, so that was a positive. I wanted to take advantage of this one-of-a-kind opportunity to promote our state, support economic development, and, of course, highlight our fantastic tourism economy in Louisiana and New Orleans.”
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