DULUTH — A Duluth priest said Pope Francis signed a baseball for him during a recent trip to Rome.

The Rev. Richard Kunst said he met with the pope last week, taking along a baseball for Francis to sign. Kunst said the meeting lasted a minute and that he was on “cloud nine.”

Kunst said he asked the pope to sign a baseball because of the “rarity and uncommon nature of it,” and that it could speak to people who aren’t interested in matters of faith. The baseball that Kunst said the pope autographed has “Francis” scrawled on it.