America is again, child. Not solely has the Gulf of Mexico been efficiently Americanized, the Vatican is now formally US territory. OK, wonderful, not formally, however, on Thursday, the Chicago-born Robert Francis Prevost was introduced as pope. The 69-year-old, who has taken the papal title Leo XIV, is the primary clergyman from america to steer the Roman Catholic church.
Whereas Prevost was a frontrunner for the papacy, his victory appears to have taken many consultants unexpectedly. There has lengthy been resistance to an American pope for various causes, together with the truth that it would make it seem as if the Vatican is aligned with the world’s strongest financial and army energy.
“If the Catholic church have been additionally run by an American, the worldwide dominance of the US could be merely pervasive and overwhelming,” Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability.org, a watchdog group that tracks clergy baby abuse instances within the Catholic church worldwide, advised ABC Information just lately.
I’ll inform you who doesn’t appear significantly overwhelmed by the primary American pope: Donald Trump. The president has spent the previous few days posting AI-generated footage of himself because the pope and customarily mocking the Catholic church. Nonetheless, Trump was on his greatest behaviour when the official announcement got here by, and posted a reasonably restrained message on Fact Social, congratulating the pope and saying it was a “Nice Honor for our Nation”.
Simply give it a couple of days, although, and I’m positive Trump shall be on Fox Information taking credit score for the brand new pope and asserting that the Vatican goes to eliminate all their dusty previous Bibles and substitute them with the Trump God Bless the USA Bible. Solely $99.99 for the platinum version and a cut price $74.99 for the pink and gold version!
Vice-President JD Vance, one of many final individuals to see Pope Francis alive, additionally posted a diplomatic message of congratulations, saying he was “positive thousands and thousands of American Catholics and different Christians will pray for [Pope Leo’s] profitable work main the Church”.
I’m not an American Catholic. Nor am I Protestant, Episcopalian, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist or anything. I’m an atheist, though not a very religious one. However I’m actually praying as laborious as I can that Pope Leo would be the ethical chief that the world so desperately wants at this second.
For many of my life I’ve not been significantly excited by who the pope is. And I’ve had little or no religion that the Vatican, which coated up systemic sexual abuse, may ever be an actual power for good. However – and I do know I’m not alone once I say this – the previous 19 months has basically modified how I see the world. I used to imagine in issues like worldwide human rights legislation. I used to imagine that whereas the arc of the ethical universe could also be extraordinarily lengthy, it bends towards justice. I used to imagine that universities would arise without spending a dime speech. And I used to imagine that irrespective of how craven western world leaders is perhaps, they wouldn’t go as far as to allow the livestreamed genocide unfolding in Gaza. That western leaders wouldn’t stand by and cheer as Israel, whose complete blockade on Gaza has entered its third month, starves kids to dying.
Throughout a time when worldwide legislation has been dealt a lethal blow, when may is correct and many years of progress appear to be unravelling, the late Pope Francis made an impression on non-Catholics like me for his ethical readability in direction of many marginalized teams and his advocacy for peace in every single place from “martyred Ukraine” to Gaza. In fact, his legacy isn’t excellent: many abuse victims have questioned whether or not he went far sufficient in acknowledging kids sexually abused by clergy. However Pope Francis undoubtedly fought for essentially the most weak in society.
Pope Francis additionally understood what many newspaper editors and politicians don’t appear to have the ability to comprehend: that there isn’t a “both-sidesing” atrocities. That there are occasions the place you could take sides as a result of, as Desmond Tutu stated, “in case you are impartial in conditions of injustice, you will have chosen the facet of the oppressor.”
In 2023, for instance, Pope Francis went on a historic journey to South Sudan and advised church buildings within the area that they “can’t stay impartial” however should converse up towards injustice and abuse of energy.
Pope Francis additionally visited the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2023, the place he criticized the “poison of greed” driving battle within the area. “Fingers off the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Fingers off Africa. Cease choking Africa: it’s not a mine to be stripped or a terrain to be plundered,” Francis stated.
When it got here to Gaza, Pope Francis spoke clearly and powerfully. He would name the one Roman Catholic church in Gaza nearly nightly after this iteration of the battle broke out. When a lot of the world appears to have turned away from Gaza’s struggling, Pope Francis let anguished civilians know he cared. One among his final needs was that his popemobile be became a cellular well being clinic for kids within the Gaza Strip.
And Pope Francis was not shy about criticizing the US – constantly talking up for immigrants and refugees. “We should not be greatly surprised by their numbers, however moderately view them as individuals, seeing their faces and listening to their tales,” he advised the US Congress in September 2015.
We don’t but know the way Pope Leo will undertake his duties however he’s extensively thought-about a centrist who was aligned with Francis on various social points. Notably, in February Leo tweeted an article that disagreed with Vance’s views on immigration, headlined “JD Vance is unsuitable: Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for others”. In April, he additionally retweeted commentary criticizing Trump deporting a US resident to El Salvador.
Whether or not Pope Leo will stay outspoken, whether or not he’ll proceed Francis’s calls for for a ceasefire in Gaza, stays to be seen. However the world desperately wants robust ethical management for the time being. Might Leo be the sunshine we’d like within the present darkness. And, for his personal sake, might he keep away from JD Vance.
Supply hyperlink
