It’s long been the case that the Catholic church wouldn’t pick a pope from a superpower, the feeling being that the whole combination would be a little awesome and would raise suspicions among the faithful from the rest of the world – rather a mirror image of some fears that JFK had to deal with as the first Catholic US President.

I didn’t expect it to happen this fast and despite my Chicago background I have no idea who this guy is. He’s chosen the title of Pope Leo XIV and these name picks are usually an indicator of the thinking of the current pope. So let’s have a look at Ye Olde Wiki on Pope Leo III (1878-1903):

In his famous 1891 encyclical Rerum novarum, Pope Leo outlined the rights of workers to a fair wage, safe working conditions, and the formation of trade unions, while affirming the rights to property and free enterprise, opposing both socialism and laissez-faire capitalism.

Hmmmm….. Well hopefully he’s not a Liberation Theologist like his predecessor, despite having spent a third of his life outside the USA, mainly in Peru (but then that ideology was very South American), and he’s from the Augustinian order rather than the Jesuits, so may have some softer edges to him in dealing with his internal opponents.

I did chuckle at this article that gave examples of how fast things are moving for a Pope in these times, in terms of social media: the 2005 papal election was a MySpace event, overshadowed still by the MSM; the 2013 one got coverage in Facebook and exceeded the MSM; this time people have poured onto X, Instagram, and TikTok.

That first speech was rather vague, “peace and justice….working together … to be missionaries.” He also referred to his Augustinian religious order affiliation and said he would “build bridges…and receive everyone”. Could have been written by any Democrat speechwriter.

Hey, at least he didn’t use the term “group hug”! The following is ominous though:

Francis brought Prevost, 69, to the Vatican in 2023 to serve as the powerful head of the office that vets bishop nominations from around the world, one of the most important jobs in the Catholic Church Significantly, he presided over one of the most revolutionary reforms Francis made, when he added three women to the voting bloc that decides which bishop nominations to forward to the pope. In early 2025, Francis again showed his esteem by appointing Prevost to the most senior rank of cardinals

So he’s a Francis boy. In which case this information tracks:

He has been critical of President Trump’s mass deportations of undocumented migrants to Latin America, and in February of this year responded on X to the vice-president’s efforts to justify the policy, saying: “JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for others.”
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On April 14, Prevost retweeted a post referencing the deportation of an undocumented migrant to El Salvador, which read in part: “Do you not see the suffering? Is your conscience not disturbed? How can you stay quiet?”

That last one he’s talking about was Kilmar Abrego Garcia – MS-13 gang member, human trafficker and wife beater.

Unlike “President” Biden I can’t even look forward to this ending in four years.