Anonymous wrote:Who cares. For those of you who hate Trump it's not like this guy is going to replace him or force him to change his policies. The Biden admin fetishized abortion under the watch of a good Irish Catholic boy from Scranton. Didn't see Francis making any inroads to stop it.

Anonymous wrote:As a non-practicing Catholic Democrat, I am happy with this choice.

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."

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Anonymous wrote:There has never been an American Pope in part because the Catholic Church didn't want so much power consolidated within the US. Now that the US has really been knocked down with its international relations, currency, economy, leadership, etc., it's ok to have an American Pope. Just another data point as we track the downfall.

I am hardly a MAGA but all this does is cement the US further as a global leader? What are you even talking about?

No. It is largely understood that the US would never produce a pope until it was no longer the top power.

Is that an actual thing or is it just what people said to rationalize why there hadn’t been one? There are *lots* of places that haven’t had a pope.

Anonymous wrote:He's Peruvian-American, instead of an Argentian of Italian descent. He's the first real non-white Pope.

He spent 20 years in Peru and that's where he became a bishop (instead of in the US). He then went to the Vatican where he was placed in powerful positions in the Curia.

Read Leo XIII's wikipedia to understand what this guy believes (hint: more helping the poor, less lavishing praise on US CEOs): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Leo_XIII

This guy is a rebuke of MAGA and only an American could do it. It's an interesting moment in time.

Anonymous wrote:He's Peruvian-American, instead of an Argentian of Italian descent. He's the first real non-white Pope.

He spent 20 years in Peru and that's where he became a bishop (instead of in the US). He then went to the Vatican where he was placed in powerful positions in the Curia.

Read Leo XIII's wikipedia to understand what this guy believes (hint: more helping the poor, less lavishing praise on US CEOs): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Leo_XIII

This guy is a rebuke of MAGA and only an American could do it. It's an interesting moment in time.

Robert Francis Prevost was born in Chicago on 14 September 1955, the son of Louis Marius Prevost and Mildred Martínez.[4] His father, who was a United States Navy veteran of World War II and school administrator,[5] was of French and Italian descent, and his mother of Spanish descent.[6]

Anonymous wrote:Argentina is part of America too, you dolt.

Anonymous wrote:There has never been an American Pope in part because the Catholic Church didn't want so much power consolidated within the US. Now that the US has really been knocked down with its international relations, currency, economy, leadership, etc., it's ok to have an American Pope. Just another data point as we track the downfall.