An American Pope

Thoughts on history, religion, politics ... and a Chicago-born pope

An American pope. Who would have imagined it just a week ago?

On Thursday, I had another post 90% ready to go, but then this happened and I couldn’t bring myself to publish the other piece. It was about U.S. politics, but it suddenly seemed less important to talk about than a story of an American pope, which encompasses strands of history, religion and politics all at once. So I put the other post aside for the moment and instead am putting out this one on the extraordinary news that an American now sits on the throne of St. Peter.

This story has many facets and I’ve tried to inject various thoughts and perspectives below (some serious, some fun). But before I get to that I have to start with a few paragraphs of personal reflections on popes and spirituality.

Thoughts on spirituality and on meeting Pope John Paul II

Whenever there is news about the pope, any pope, I’m always brought back to the day when I met Pope John Paul II. Admittedly, “met” is an overstatement — it’s not like we chatted over coffee or anything.

At the time, I was a staff member with the cross-cultural educational program Up with People. We were in Canada, the pope was coming to Canada, and we were asked to be on the tarmac at the Ottawa airport so that international students in our group could sing a few songs as he stepped off his plane. The Prime Minister of Canada was there to officially greet Pope John Paul II and we were told not to expect any interaction with either person. But after shaking hands with the Prime Minister, the pope wandered over to say hello to our group.

He touched hands, said a few words in different languages to the international students, blessed us, and was off. So I had my hand touched by Pope John Paul II. That was it. But it still felt like a powerful moment. (More on that further down). And it was powerful despite my unsettled relationship with the Catholic Church.

I grew up in a Catholic family. As a child, I went to church most every Sunday and I attended parochial schools in kindergarten and first grade. But then my parents divorced. We moved to a different town. Attended public schools. My Mom at the time didn’t think she was still welcome in the Church as a divorced woman. Moreover, the next years were a blur of financial difficulties that made getting to Mass seem less important in the grand scheme of life. So the family drifted away from Catholicism. I later lived with my Dad for a while in high school and attended church again for a bit, but it never felt like the link from my early childhood was ever fully restored.

As an adult, then, I spent some time working with international students. I traveled a fair amount in this job, and then later did more wide-ranging personal travel. And along the way had numerous experiences that allowed me to see the diverse ways in which spirituality is experienced on this planet we call home.

There was the time, for instance, that we hiked Mount Sinai in the early morning darkness to watch the sunrise from the same ground that Moses walked upon thousands of years earlier. Or a chance encounter with Christian monks singing Gregorian chants in the dimly lit stone basement of a church in Florence, Italy, in a scene that seemed straight out of the Middle Ages. Or the experience of attending services and singing soulful hymns alongside parishioners at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where Martin Luther King once preached.

These travels also brought me into contact with various global faiths. I felt a sense of transcendence while sitting with Buddhist monks early in the morning as they went through their prayer ritual at a monastery in Ladakh, India. I was captivated by the chance to talk for a half-hour about life with a young Buddhist monk in Thailand. I was entranced by the sound of the Muslim call to prayer from mosques in Turkey, Egypt, and Jordan. And I was staggered by the experience of joining thousands of Hindus for sunrise on the Ganges River in Varanasi, India.

Through all of this, I came to better understand the saying that “all religions are rivers, all rivers lead to the ocean.” The thing is, though, I never did find my way to a specific river again. But I did find spirituality everywhere on this planet. I saw that the deepest spirituality can be found in the humblest or poorest person as well as in the greatest religious leaders. At the same time, hypocrisy can just as easily be present in people who profess to be religious. One never knows until you actually interact with an individual.

Which brings us back to Pope John Paul II. That simple touch of his hand, that brief whisper of an interaction with him, was powerful because that’s all it took to feel a sense of his deep spirituality. He had an aura that exuded compassion. And while it’s difficult even now to explain, all I know is that despite an interaction that lasted mere seconds, it seemed obvious and undeniable to me that this man lived his spirituality.

One doesn’t have to agree with everything (or even anything) about a particular religion to appreciate such a manifestation of devotion in a person. So while there are numerous things about Catholic teachings that I sincerely appreciate and others that I disagree with, I at least don’t doubt the devotion to faith that infuses people like John Paul II, Francis, or now Leo XIV.

While watching the newest pope move into his role, then — and while reading about his life experiences and his dedication to helping the poor — I found it easy to imagine that an interaction with him would provide a similar sense of meeting someone who manifests a deep spirituality.

Anyway, those were my thoughts these past few days while watching the election of a new pope.

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Here is a roundup of a few other things I found interesting while reading about the election of Pope Leo XIV …

1. What’s in a name?

According to The Guardian:

Cardinal Robert Prevost has chosen the name Leo XIV – and if you’re a papal Leo, you tend to be a reformer at the progressive end of Catholicism.

That Prevost has decided to become Leo XIV will make Catholics think immediately of the last Leo – Leo XIII – and his 1891 encyclical or teaching document, Rerum Novarum, which outlined workers’ rights to a fair wage, safe working conditions and the rights of workers to belong to trade unions. If Pope Francis was the People’s Pope, then Leo XIV is all set to be the Workers’ Pope.

2. My brother, the pope

Can you imagine having your brother elected pope? John and Louis Prevost now know what that’s like (in a report from CBS News):

John Prevost said he found out the life-changing news at the same time as everyone else – while watching TV. He saw his brother step onto the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica and said initially he didn't believe it, despite previously considering it a possibility.

"I just thought, maybe I'm dreaming, and then it's a moment of extreme pride, and then eventually, reality sets in, and you think, there goes the rest of his life," Prevost said. "Now he's got awesome, awesome responsibility that he has to deal with."

If you want to see an interview with his brother, Louis, CBS has one at this link.

Oh, and yes, the pope likes baseball and is a White Sox fan. Remarkably, someone found a broadcast of the 2005 World Series that happened to show the future pope in the crowd, cheering on his team. At the time, he was an important figure in the Church as Prior General of the Order of Saint Augustine, but was not yet a bishop.

3. Is there any significance to Leo XIV being an American?

The longtime assumption was that an American could never be elected pope. Mostly because the country already had the biggest economy and most powerful military in the world, so to also have an American as a global spiritual leader would concentrate too much influence in one nation. And yet here we are.

Most observers, though, believe that Leo was considered less for his American heritage and more for his global experiences. As the NY Times described it:

Despite his American roots, the Chicago-born polyglot, 69, is viewed as a churchman who transcends borders. The Vatican’s official news website framed him not as the first pope from the United States, but the second pope from the Americas.

He served for two decades in Peru, where he became a bishop and a naturalized citizen, then rose to lead his international religious community, the Order of St. Augustine. Under Pope Francis, he held one of the most influential Vatican posts, running the office that selects and manages bishops globally.

But whether or not Leo’s American roots had anything to do with the papal selection, it could still turn out to be consequential.

Bill Kristol, for one, was reminded of the impact a Polish pope from Soviet-dominated Eastern Europe had on the world in the late 20th century.

I and my fellow Cold-War-liberals-en-route-to-becoming-Reagan-Republicans found the selection of this anti-Communist and pro-freedom pope from behind the Iron Curtain exciting. It gave us hope in dark times …

Could Pope Leo XIV foretell a similar revival of the forces of freedom today? … Cardinal Prevost has been a critic of the nativist bigotry and cruelty now ascendant in the United States. Could his selection help spark an increased revulsion against that bigotry and cruelty, and even herald a liberation from it?

Or, as Charlies Sykes wryly noted:

Part of Donald Trump’s appeal is that he is the great champion of Christendom and now he’s going to have to explain that to a fellow American who is the pope.

4. Catholicism, meet American politics

Of course, almost nothing in the news escapes the polarization of American politics these days. Even the selection of a new pope.

Numerous MAGA influencers went into full freak-out mode as soon as they digested the news that Leo XIV was close to the late Pope Francis, that he cared about helping the poor and advocating for migrants, and that he’d seemed to criticize J.D. Vance a few months ago by retweeting an article from the National Catholic Reporter with the headline: “JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn't ask us to rank our love for others.”

There was this, for instance (from conservative influencer Laura Loomer):

He is anti-Trump, anti-MAGA, pro-open Borders, and a total Marxist like Pope Francis.

And this:

Sorry, Catholics. This new Pope is an open borders globalist. He will be pushing for abortion soon.

I don’t quite understand the vitriol, mostly because the pope seems to be aligned with conservative Catholic positions (and thus with Republicans) on social issues. He is anti-abortion, obviously. He’s been quoted as criticizing Western media for its positive portrayals of “alternative families comprised of homosexual partners and their adopted children.” And most news reports indicate he was acceptable to the more conservative cardinals because he isn’t seen as likely to make dramatic changes to traditional Church doctrine or practices.

So the only evidence we have at the moment is that Leo has traditionally conservative social views in line with the Church’s teachings, along with more progressive views on ministering to the poor and refugees and migrants (also, by the way, in line with the Church’s teachings). He’s going to end up pleasing and displeasing both Democrats and Republicans at one time or another. None of this should be a surprise because the Catholic Church has never fit neatly into the platform of either U.S. political party.

Yet the MAGA right is melting down. The only conclusion one can reasonably draw from this is that they’re upset because Pope Leo XIV cares about the poor and immigrants. Which tells you something, no?

5. Other pieces of interest

• How Pope Leo became a beloved Peruvian figure (NBC News)

• Leo XIV: The modest missionary in Peru who became the first American pope (Washington Post)

• The new Pope Leo XIV is an American by birth, but he’s not like us at all (in a good way) (Opinion column in the Sacramento Bee)

• What can we learn about Pope Leo XIV from his X account? (Not a headline we’ve probably ever seen before — this one from the National Catholic Reporter)

• In the election of Pope Leo XIV, a call for Americans to be great again (LA Times)

And, if you missed it, the moment when Leo XIV first appeared on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica as the new pope:

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