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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]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.
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Interesting. Is there a link to this?[/quote]

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

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:[b] '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."[/b]
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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.[/quote]

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.[/quote]
+1 He spoke in Italian, Latin, and Spanish, not English. Interesting.[/quote]

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