HABEMUS PAPAM!!!
God bless our American Pope!
Happy Mother’s Day to everyone, but especially to Holy Mother Church, who now has a Pope again! I wrote a piece on this publication pretty quickly upon hearing of the death of Pope Francis, and I wrote again when the conclave began - in both situations because I felt some urgency to share my specific thoughts. Well now it’s been several days since Cardinal Robert Prevost has been elected the new Pope Leo XIV and I haven’t felt the urgent need to share any thoughts. I still don’t have much to offer, but I wanted to close out this informal tryptich simply by saying that I love the guy!
I love the name Leo, and that he wore the traditional papal vestments when he first appeared to the crowd in St. Peter’s Square. I love hearing him sing the Regina Coeli. I love that he’s American! And we Americans should all take great pride in that fact. I want to meet him, or at least see him when he visits America. The closest I’ve ever come to a Pope is in 2018 when my family and I all went to Rome to attend the canonization of St. Maria Katherina Kasper, a saint who founded an order of nuns in Germany in the nineteenth century called the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ (and who is a relative of mine). One day when we were near St. Peter’s, Pope Francis zoomed past in the Popemobile while waving at the crowd. I remarked then, and I stand by it now, that he looked an awful lot like an animatronic at Disneyland. That moment was surreal, as was the whole trip.
If past trends are any indication, Pope Leo could visit the U.S. very soon! Popes JPII and Benedict each visited their home countries within months of ascending to the papacy. Obviously, travel within Europe is a lot easier than a flight to America, but still, Pope Leo is a spring chicken compared to the last two Popes. I assume he’s going to visit Chicago, his birthplace, and I’m hoping to be able to go there when that happens.
Habemus Papam! God bless Pope Leo XIV! May he reign long and well!
I will be actually getting back to talking about movies on this publication, so stay tuned for that! Thanks for reading.