A Stunning Choice
Will Leo go traditionalist, or maintain the 'progressive' track of Francis?
Note: I had not planned on writing about the Pope-situation again, as I am not (nor ever have been) Catholic. However, this choice, in this moment, is driving me to revisit the topic one more time. With that noted, barring a major event it is unlikely you will see another article from me on this subject, at least not anytime soon.
If you would have asked me just two weeks ago if it were more likely that a Saint Bernard or an American Cardinal would be selected as pope, I would have chosen the dog. At least with the former, the word “Saint” is baked right into the name of the breed, but a pontiff from Chicago?
And yet, here we are…
The American Pope
The Pillar
Of all the possibilities…
Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost has been chosen as the 267th pope of the Catholic Church, taking the name Leo XIV, and proclaiming “Peace be with you all!” in his first greeting to the world.
A native of Chicago, the 69-year-old is the first pope from the United States, though he spent much of his time as a missionary in Peru.
As I discussed in my piece after Francis died, there was a list of media 'favorites' (representing very different perspectives and regions) who were being considered for the position. Pietro Parolin and Peter Turkson, both rigid 'progressives' (with the allegedly-smart money on the former), along with traditionalists Robert Sarah and Pierbattista Pizzaballa (as an outsider looking in, I was really hoping for Pizzaballa), were all pegged as the frontrunners by the prognosticators.
In the end, however, the cardinals went with a more moderate voice. An American voice.
And yet…
There is also the third camp, which at times overlaps the previous two, comprised of those who stand against the Globalist Agenda; those in this camp are in no way enamored with Leo. An example as to why can be found on the ‘Vatican News’ X account, where Pope Leo explained his choice of name…
"There are different reasons for this, but mainly because Pope Leo XIII in his historic Encyclical Rerum Novarum addressed the social question in the context of the first great industrial revolution. In our own day, the Church offers to everyone the treasury of her social teaching in response to another industrial revolution and to developments in the field of artificial intelligence that pose new challenges for the defence of human dignity, justice and labour."
Sounds like globalist double-speak to me.
Then there is also the unsettling case of two priests who stand accused of sexually violating three minors. According to reports, these alleged crimes occurred in a Peruvian diocese beginning in 2007, and were reported in 2022.
The diocese was under then-Bishop Prevost's leadership when those reports were dropped, and the methods by which the investigations were conducted have faced scrutiny. Especially troubling is the suggestion that local authorities were not immediately contacted by the Church after Prevost became aware of the charges, which hints at a potential cover-up.
None of this can be corroborated by available information, but it should neither be ignored nor trivialized. At minimum, it calls into question Leo’s commitment to the victims of abuse, which - for a freshly-minted pope - is not a good look.
At all.
If we set aside this alleged ‘abuse scandal’, the opinions catalogued above on who Leo is appear to be true, despite the fact they each paint a different picture of him. When that occurs, it usually means the actual truth is more nuanced, and probably resides somewhere in the middle.
For example, he had previously supported many of Francis’ public agendas, but we should also consider that as a Bishop / Cardinal his job was to do just that; how he leads now, after all, may be very different from how he followed then. His choice of traditional vestments is an indicator, one which suggests a more conservative approach, while his focus on faith and reason (being an aspect of his Augustinian background) is also telling.
Basically… of all the candidates that were available, this one might be the most perplexing. There are a few voices speaking out who believe this is a ‘unifying’ choice, one which will bring the church together… and bring American Catholics back into the fold. That last point is a ripe concern for the Holy See, for a variety of reasons.
Of course, no one really knows what direction this Pope will take the Church (or the millions of small-town non-Catholics who are nevertheless affected by their local parishes), but after the last few years a change was definitely needed.
Only time can tell if this change will be for good or bane.
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Previous drops for context…
Additional Thoughts…
I know there are more than a few of you who are non-Catholic like myself sitting there going, “Okay, and so what?” You may have even rolled your eyes at this line in the article…
(O)r the millions of small-town non-Catholics who are nevertheless affected by their local parishes…
Like last week’s piece about the AfD being targeted in Germany, an article on the Pope may not seem to have any bearing on us commoners just trying to live more Natural, local lives. Allow me to suggest, however, that this one is even more vital to us than the AfD article I dropped last Wednesday.
The reason is simple: Aside from the current US President, and the Davos Cabal, the entity that has the most subtle-yet-significant impact on our daily lives is the man who holds the papacy. This is because of the influence he has over Catholics all across America, from our urban metropolises to our smallest townships.
Many of the men and women who set the tone for these communities - state houses to voters, mayors to school-boards, mega-corporations to small-business-owners - are Catholic, so whoever is pulling the spiritual strings (metaphorically-speaking) makes a difference. When you consider that the Pope is also a global political figure, his influence becomes even more pronounced.
To be fair, I know there are many American Catholics who will ignore a Papal Bull if it is in conflict with Liberty (we saw multiple examples of this throughout Francis’ papacy), but there are also millions more who would not… and therein lies the rub. With so many influential people listening to this one man, the potential for harm - on a very local level - becomes very real.
Hence, my compulsion to explore this new pope further… at least this one time. That stated, we will return to regular shenanigans, and we will do so soon.
Notes
-- Special thanks to Nina Khosla, for her editing expertise.
-- Unless otherwise credited, all images were generated by the author via NightCafe, Grok 3 [X], or Substack’s AI Image Tool, with digital alterations when desired or needed.
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Simple to me: Church has become full woke globalist corrupt, and this choice is full counter to Trump- in his own backyard. It still believes that if it can neutralize Trump, the burgeoning conservative nationalist and anti-graft world movement gets stopped in its tracks- tumbling like dominoes his few allies / their remaining few hurdles, like Meloni & Orbán.
And as far as the evil insider control the hidden riches clique, which doesn't care which ideology rules publicly, there's nothing more convenient than electing another foreigner demonstrably uninterested or oblivious to financial machinations. So that they needn't even think of planning another John Paul I reprise.
I appreciate your insight and this post. It is something more people should think about!
As a Catholic and yet also a Christian, I think there is a lot that remains to be revealed about Leo. Like peeling an onion. I really can not envision a worse pope than Francis so I guess my bar is set fairly high for Leo. The papacy, as you pointed out, wields a tremendous amount of power. These are some of the most evil times, if not the most evil, when you consider the widespread and prolific child trafficking and the mainstreaming of pedophilia by the LGBTQ crowd...not to mention the many thousands of abortions performed each year.
The (possible) corruption of the Vatican and the papacy seems very par for the course when you look at it through the lens of "The End of Days" and what is revealed in Revelation. Evil is accelerating, earthquakes are happening with a greater frequency especially here in the US and in places where earthquakes are far from the norm, volcanic eruptions are also growing, Trump is doing his best to bring peace but wars are always looming and the warmongers don't seem to sleep.