Wordle with Pope Leo and the last audience with Pope Francis: Theresa Ardler’s winning ways with pontiffs

They say she has a hotline to His Holiness.

Indigenous elder Theresa Ardler — who was close friends with the late Pope Francis — has managed to strike up a new Papal friendship with his successor – Pope Leo.

She’s revealed the pair have grown so close they regularly game together online, playing Wordle and Words With Friends.

“So we play like a couple of times a week on Words with Friends,” she said.

“He’s so good. He’s very fast — and he’s very articulate.”

A Committed Catholic, Ms Ardler says the friendship came about almost by accident in April this year.

The 53-year-old was already a family friend of Pope Francis, who had invited her to visit him at the Vatican’s Casa Santa Marta, where Francis lived during his Ponitifcate.

Her visit had immediately followed that of the US Vice President JD Vance. She claims they even shook hands as they passed each other.

“I actually didn’t know who he was,” she said.

“And when he was walking out of Santa Marta he said ‘Hello, my name is JD Vance’. And I said, ‘Oh, where are you from?’ He goes, ‘America!!’”

She smiles as she reveals the details of their visits.

“(Vance) was only with him five minutes and I was with him two hours,” she laughed.

She revealed 88-year-old Pope Francis was wheelchair-bound, struggling to breathe and didn’t eat much during that time.

“He couldn’t hardly say much. I did most of the talking,” she said. “But it was still very beautiful.”

It was Easter Sunday. Pope Francis died the next day, Easter Monday.

It’s believed Ms Ardler was the last person on earth to receive a Papal audience with Francis.

“I think about him every day and I pray for him every day,” she said.

But here, the story turns even more remarkable.

Ms Ardler took part in the funeral as a guest of the family. During the interment of Pope Francis at the Santa Maria Maggiore Basilica she was seated with a friendly American Cardinal. His name was Cardinal Robert Prevost.

She recounts the meeting:

“So the first thing he said to me is, ‘do you play Wordle?’ And I said, ‘I don’t know what Wordle is’.

Then he suggests Words with Friends instead.

“And I said, ‘OK, but I don’t know what that is either!’.”

She promised to learn the games if the Cardinal played her favourite game – online Eight Ball Pool.

They talked and swapped phone numbers.

She told him she was born in Sydney and grew up on an Aboriginal community at Wreck Bay on the NSW south coast.

“He said he’d been to Sydney a few times as an Augustinian and stayed over near Manly.”

“He’s very down to earth and he’s absolutely amazing,” she said.

She called him “Rob P”.

“He goes, ‘We must stay in touch’.”

And then, just days later, Robert Prevost was elected Pope Leo XIV.

Theresa says she had no idea that he was about to be elevated to the head of the Catholic Church and was even more surprised when she was back in Australia and “Rob P” contacted her to play the promised online word games.

She says the phone number he had as a Cardinal is the one he still uses as Pope and she lists him in contacts as “Rob P”.

They’ve played regularly, usually late at night Australian-time.

“I was close with Francis, but it’s a different closeness with Leo,” she said. “He’s like a very dear friend of mine.”

Has she ever beaten her dear friend at word games?

“Not at Wordle or Word with Friends. He is so good,” Ms Ardler says.

She also received an invitation to Pope Leo’s major climate conference earlier this month called “Laudato Si”.

Ms Ardler went as Australia’s only First Nations representative. The conference had a particular focus on the effects of climate change on first nations people worldwide.

When she arrived, Ms Ardler said Pope Leo instantly recognised her and her possum-pelt traditional clothing.

She says she was the only one to get a hug from him.

“I said, ‘Can I give you a cuddle?’ And he said, ‘What’s that?’ And I said, ‘it’s a hug’. And he goes, ‘yes!’”

Since she returned to Australia she’s resumed playing online games and taking his occasional calls.

“We also meet together through Zoom and discuss what’s happening in the world, especially around climate change.”

Ms Ardler said she is also pushing for a new Catholic dicastery, an administrative department, to deal with First Nations issues.

“I’m optimistic he’ll do it,” she said.

She also revealed Pope Leo is confident he will be able accept the Federal Government’s official invitation to attend the International Eucharistic Congress in Sydney in 2028.

“You know, he’s very much looking forward to coming out to Australia,” she said.

“And I said, you must come and stay with me in my community in Wreck Bay.”

“He told me he’d love to,” she said