Habemus Papam!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't get why anyone would be happy given this: "In picking the 69-year-old Prevost, the papal conclave looked past allegations that he had mishandled or failed to act on sexual abuse cases involving priests in both Peru and the United States."

Do any cardinals care about sexual abuse.

Well, they picked one we know for a fact does not care given he covered things up TWICE in highly publicized cases, and it didn't take them long to pick him. That tells you how much they care to try and find one without this baggage. Huge slap in the face to the thousands of victims of abusive priests worldwide, and shows that the Vatican will continue not to care.

Which current Cardinals are clean on this subject?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went and looked at the balcony videos of JPII, Benedict, and Francis and I could see the most real and raw emotion from Leo. I will take that as a good sign.

Well, I mean, he's an American. We tend to be emotional.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That is so exciting!!

They probably said ‘we need an American to get those American idiot politicians in line’…

Joking aside, I think this is absolutely true. 6 months ago, he would not have gotten this vote. It is expected he will go head to head with current admin. He seems like a great leader!! I’m so excited.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So to those who say he’s a liberal, what about this?

https://www.thepinknews.com/2025/05/08/pope-robert-prevost-lgbt/

I don’t believe anyone has used the term liberal. But the fact that he aligns with Francis on his support of marginalized population is a plus. He would not have been chosen if he was seen as liberal.

Correct. But he’s been vocal against JD Vance on Twitter.

And he retweeted Chris Murphy!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went and looked at the balcony videos of JPII, Benedict, and Francis and I could see the most real and raw emotion from Leo. I will take that as a good sign.

I liked seeing the emotion on his face too. It seemed positive to me.

[Anonymous]

He is described as moderate by most, but the American conservative describes him as liberal. Interesting

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So to those who say he’s a liberal, what about this?

https://www.thepinknews.com/2025/05/08/pope-robert-prevost-lgbt/

He is a liberal Catholic. Pro-Latin America. Which is a very specific thing.

He is pro-choice of course. Also anti-IVF and any reproductive technology.

Anti-LGBT and Gay marriage. Both of these are not optional for someone who is in that kind of a position of power within the Church.

He is also someone who likely has a Latin American sensibility about distribution of wealth and does not love the new power we have deemed billionaires worthy of.

He holds the position that the Catholic Church long has on immigration, on meeting the needs of the poor and on the environment and the need for Peace.

None of this puts him out of step with the Bishops of the world, with the US Bishops' Conference or with the Vatican.
The fact that he has navigated the Vatican for so long means that he won't be easily tripped up.

I think it's a great choice. And yes, most definitely a choice meant to put a check on any of the US Conservative Catholics (Supreme Court Justices, anyone?) who think that they are called by their faith to affirm immigrants being sent to concentration camps. Obviously.

According to MSN, he's also a registered Republican, something that has been verified by other news sources (e.g., NewsMax).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Robert Barron, Bishop of Winona-Rochester, mentioned Cardinal George's viewpoint that an American pope would be unlikely as long as the U.S. is a political, cultural, and economic powerhouse....I wonder if the conclave decided that America is on the decline so not as big deal to have an American pope.

Interesting. Is there a link to this?

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-pope-could-it-be-american-cardinal-robert-prevost/

A first U.S. pope: Cardinal Robert Prevost chosen as successor to Pope Francis
By
Updated on: May 8, 2025 / 1:42 PM EDT / CBS News

Vatican City — Of the 266 popes who have led the Catholic Church, not one of them had been from the United States. Until Thursday. The cardinal electors gathered for the papal conclave elected an American from among their own ranks on Thursday to serve as the new pontiff. Chicago-born Cardinal Robert Prevost was elected and accepted his fate as the next Bishop of Rome, leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics. He chose Leo XIV as his papal name.

While the relative youth of the nation, fewer than 20 of the church's previous popes had served after the U.S. Declaration of Independence in 1776, one prominent U.S. bishop offered possible explanation for the lack of an American leader of the world's Catholics a day before his election.

Robert Barron, bishop of the Diocese of Winona–Rochester in Minnesota, was appointed less than a week ago by President Trump to the new White House Commission on Religious Liberty. This week, however, he was at the Vatican with hundreds of other prelates as the cardinal electors gather for the conclave to choose a new pontiff.

Barron spent days speaking with the cardinals — including the 133 cardinal electors tasked with electing the new pope — as they tried to figure out among themselves who would be best to lead the church.

"Cardinal George of Chicago, of happy memory, was one of my great mentors, and he said: 'Look, until America goes into political decline, there won't be an American pope.' And his point was, if America is kind of running the world politically, culturally, economically, they don't want America running the world religiously. So, I think there's some truth to that, that we're such a superpower and so dominant, they don't wanna give us, also, control over the church."

That's one person's opinion, not Church doctrine. And the person who said it is no longer with us.

I do think Pope Leo's selection may have political reasoning and undertones, but I don't think they are that clunky. It think the Church continues to choose popes who they believe will deliver an expansive message to both Catholics and people who might become Catholics, and that another "New World" Pope is a way of signaling that the Church is going to continue Francis's open armed approach to delivering the teachings of the Church. He is not as radical a choice as Tagle would have been, but he's a more expansive choice than any of the African contenders in terms of approach, and choosing a European pope, especially an Italian one, would have sent a more closed off message than I think the Church wants to convey. They are very committed to the idea of being a global Church right now and Leo is right in keeping with that.

I do not think they are commenting directly on America's political standing, nor do I think they even view Leo as an "American Pope." They probably liked that he has US ties, given the importance of the US church, but also that he spent so much time in South American and that he was so closely connected to Francis and the Vatican in the last decade. It makes him a politically savvy choice, but not a major political statement.

Agree.

Also note that in his speech, Pope Leo gave a special shot out in Spanish to the people of Peru. No shout out to the US, nor anything stated in English. I am not saying he is distancing himself, but to say his is the "American Pope" isn't really true.

+1 He spoke in Italian, Latin, and Spanish, not English. Interesting.

[Anonymous]

His dad was French and Italian, and his mom is Spanish with the last name Martinez. He is a Peruvian citizen as well.

I imagine he was picked to navigate the American political scene as well as appeal to Latin America.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That is so exciting!!

They probably said ‘we need an American to get those American idiot politicians in line’…

Joking aside, I think this is absolutely true. 6 months ago, he would not have gotten this vote. It is expected he will go head to head with current admin. He seems like a great leader!! I’m so excited.

Do they really look at it like this? Were there similar messages sent in the past? I know there are Vatican politics among them, but how does the decision concern worldwide politics? And why do people think the choice means something about US power (that it means we are in a decline, for instance)?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went and looked at the balcony videos of JPII, Benedict, and Francis and I could see the most real and raw emotion from Leo. I will take that as a good sign.

Well, I mean, he's an American. We tend to be emotional.

NO it's the Italians and Latinos in general who tend to be emotional and he is Italian and Latino by parentage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is fascinating:

https://bsky.app/profile/reichlinmelnick.bsky.social/post/3looh2t6zhc2e

Text in case the link doesn't work:

"The new Pope didn't tweet once in 2024. In 2025, he's posted 5 times, in which he:

- Criticized JD Vance's views on Catholicism and Jesus
- Posted an article opposing Trump's immigration policies
- Retweeted twice about the Pope's health
- Retweeted a criticism of Trump & Bukele's laughter at KAG."

It is very hard to view this as unintentional. The first pope born in the United States selected. He's vocally criticized both Trump and Vance in the last three months after being entirely silent prior to that and not posting about a single other political issue in that time. One of the last acts of Pope Francis, who was very close to Pope Leo in life, was to meet with Vance. AND don't forget that the meeting between Trump and Zelensky that precipitated the US suddenly getting much tougher with Russia literally occurred at Pope Francis's funeral, in the Vatican. The chairs were placed by bishops or cardinals (I can't remember which!).

There is a message being sent here.

Who is KAG?

Kilmar Abrego Garcia

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So to those who say he’s a liberal, what about this?

https://www.thepinknews.com/2025/05/08/pope-robert-prevost-lgbt/

He is a liberal Catholic. Pro-Latin America. Which is a very specific thing.

He is pro-choice of course. Also anti-IVF and any reproductive technology.

Anti-LGBT and Gay marriage. Both of these are not optional for someone who is in that kind of a position of power within the Church.

He is also someone who likely has a Latin American sensibility about distribution of wealth and does not love the new power we have deemed billionaires worthy of.

He holds the position that the Catholic Church long has on immigration, on meeting the needs of the poor and on the environment and the need for Peace.

None of this puts him out of step with the Bishops of the world, with the US Bishops' Conference or with the Vatican.
The fact that he has navigated the Vatican for so long means that he won't be easily tripped up.

I think it's a great choice. And yes, most definitely a choice meant to put a check on any of the US Conservative Catholics (Supreme Court Justices, anyone?) who think that they are called by their faith to affirm immigrants being sent to concentration camps. Obviously.

According to MSN, he's also a registered Republican, something that has been verified by other news sources (e.g., NewsMax).

I'm the PP who wrote this. It doesn't surprise me that he's a registered Republican. That doesn't contradict anything I wrote. Liberal Catholic is not at all the same thing as progressive.

[Anonymous]

Anyone else notice the absence of MAGA Catholics commenting here??

Bodes well, I think, for us non-MAGA types

[Anonymous]

He has conservative views but believes in human rights. The conservatives were not always anti human rights.