Pope Leo XIV

  

Well, that was completely unexpected.

 

We have the first American-born Pope, though he holds duel citizenship with Peru, where he spent a large amount of his time. Didn’t know anything about him, though I did hear his name come up (negatively) in a podcast I listened to last week.

 

Last night I listened to half-a-dozen “hot takes” on the new Pope, formerly Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, age 69. He does have a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics from Villanova, which is a personal plus for me. Indicative of a logical, rational mind as opposed to a touchy-feely emotional one. However, he does hail from Chicago, which has been under the thumb of the extremely liberal Cardinal Cupich for the last 11 years. He was also appointed to head the Dicastery for Bishops (which recommends priests to the Pope for bishop positions) and has had a close relationship with Francis over the past 18 months. Though I have heard credible reports that they did not see eye-to-eye on every issue and Prevost was not afraid to make his opinion known.

 

Coming out on the balcony in the red papal regalia as well as taking the name of the extremely anti-modernist, anti-socialist Pope Leo XIII were both nice signals to the traditional minded. However, I am not unaware that such signaling might not actually telegraph actual intent, especially in this day and age where it seems most of the Church hierarchy is hell-bent on changing Catholic teaching to, er, non-Catholic teaching, in a phony spirit of “welcoming” and “dialogue.”

 

The greatest secret about your host Hopper is that he is a closet optimist. Thusly, I am hopeful Pope Leo XIV will be a pendulum swing toward normalcy from the mess that Francis made. He could start by removing restrictions on the Traditional Latin Mass. He could also quash all this “synodal church” nonsense, though he has been on record in the past as supportive of such disingenuity. At this stage, it’s impossible to guess true agendas. After all, many were fooled by Francis for the first several months of his papacy, including myself. I renounce such gullibility going forward (thanks Lavender Mafia, for poisoning our childlike faith in the Church!)

 

From what I’ve gleaned from traditional to centrist sites (I can’t suffer to hear the take of liberal Catholic podcasters and such, life is way too short and precious for that), Prevost wasn’t the worst pick (that’d be either Tagle or Parolin) nor was he the best (Sarah, Burke, or Pizzaballa). He’s somewhere in the middle, probably a little left-of-center. But the thought is that many cardinals, either suffering from Francis fatigue or realizing that Francis pushed too hard too fast on his re-imaging of Catholic teaching, opted for a man who could stabilize and possibly unite the one billion Catholics throughout the world. My gut tells me it’s the latter, that they need a man who’ll institute change slower but more securely, and that perhaps an American pope might tamper down the protest from traditional American Catholic news media. That he was elected relatively quickly (on the fourth ballot, I believe), demonstrates that he was acceptable to both types of Cardinals. We’ll see.

 

Despite being that closet optimist, my official position is one of strict neutrality. Let the man show us who he is by his actions. Until then, he has my respect and prayers due to the office he holds. May he prove me wrong and be truly worthy of the Leo namesake.