Pope Leo

Wow. It has been a long time since anything was posted in his forum. I know there are many secularists/atheists here and that's fine. I just want to register my thoughts on this Pope so far, and frankly, my main thoughts veer into politics.

I got up at 4am to watch the funeral of Pope Francis. I thought it was an extraordinary event in that so many world leaders were there! Leaders that represented religious populations where Christianity is a minority. There were Europeans, but also Arabs and Africans and Asians. I thought it was an extraordinary tableau. Expecially interesting was when the part of the service that called for exchanging a sign of peace occurred.

I was also amazed at how much coverage the funeral and the conclave got in the mass media. My belief is that the election of Pope Leo represents a universal hunger for someone--anyone-- to rise above the current global discord and be a figurehead for hope--any hope--for unity and peace.

I follow a trans substacker who served in the military and she writes about her Catholic faith. She is very happy with the election of Pope Leo. Frankly, she represents how I feel about the best of religion--that if you cut through the shell of all the man-made reasons to find religion irrelevant at best and hateful at worst, it succeeds at calling to and supporting our best instincts and need for a connection to a greater power.

For those of us who pray, let's pray that Pope Leo will be able to move the needle to a better world.

A pope with a Chicago accent. Unfortunately, he’s a White Sox fan. I’m a Cubs fan. Since I’m in the Chicago area, there are lots of fun memes and things going around on social media. He’s called Da Pope. Lot of local people know him. He regularly plays Wordle and Words with friends with his brother who lives locally. The NYT had an interesting article on his Creole heritage.

He looks to tick all the right boxes, but there have been concerns about his involvement with a priest accused of child sexual abuse when here was priest in Chicago.

And finally a pope who speaks English.

Yeah, Tradd, you have a hometown Pope! It does seem strange to hear a pope with a standard American accent--DH and I think it's almost like he is just dressing up as pope--he couldn't be a real one if he talks like us!

I do like David French's quote in the Times: "In his first homily, he said that the church should serve as 'an ark of salvation sailing through the waters of history and a beacon that illumines the dark nights of this world.'"

I was so happy and surprised when they selected him. I lived in Chicago for thirty years, so it feels like the hometown boy got elected pope. I like that he tweeted something correcting JD Vance about ordering love. I like that he has Peruvian citizenship and that he selected his name after Pope Leo who was pro labor union.

Most wonderful of all, he shares my feelings and concerns about AI as being a negative thing for humanity.