"Cardinal George of Chicago famously declared, 'Until America goes into political decline, there won’t be an American pope.'

And now here we are."

~ Jay Kuo

#LeoXIV #RobertPrevost #Trump #Vance
/30

https://statuskuo.substack.com/p/habemus-papam-americanum

As Nate Tinner-Williams notes, not only is Leo XIV the first American pope, but he's also "the first of African descent since the fifth century."

"Multiple genealogists, including the Louisiana Creole expert Jari Honora, traced Prevost’s ancestry to the Black community of New Orleans. His maternal ancestors lived in the Crescent City before migrating to Chicago in the early 20th century."

#LeoXIV #pope #Trump #Vance #RobertPrevost
/28

https://www.blackcatholicmessenger.org/pope-leo-xiv-ancestry/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

Writing in his weekly emailed newsletter to Nation readers (there's no online link I can share), Elie Mystal says that he's a lapsed Catholic interested in the new pope:

"The reason I care, the only reason I care, is that religion, if it has any use, should be a balm to the poor and marginalized. I want the pope to be an advocate for those who have been cast out and cast off."

#LeoXIV #pope #Trump #Vance #RobertPrevost
/26

"As if Donald Trump’s comments suggesting that 'beautiful baby girls' could just have three dolls 'instead of 30' were not awkward enough, Vice President JD Vance has expounded upon that idea by suggesting that parents should think about how much better they’d like it if they knew that when they sent their children off to fight in foreign wars, that they were fighting with 'good, American-made weapons.'”

~ Robyn Pennacchia

#Trump #Vance #dolls #girls #weapons
/3

https://www.wonkette.com/p/jd-vance-why-do-kids-need-dolls-when

The new pope's brother John Previost says,

“I know he’s not happy with what’s going on with immigration. I know that for a fact. How far he’ll go with it is only one’s guess, but he won’t just sit back. I don’t think he’ll be the silent one.”

#LeoXIV #pope #Trump #Vance #RobertPrevost #immigrants #immigration
/18

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/may/09/pope-leo-shares-predecessors-concerns-over-us-immigration-policy-brother-says

“The election of an American pope, the first American pope … there’s a signal here that the church is taking a side in what’s happening around the globe.”

#LeoXIV #pope #Trump #Vance #RobertPrevost
/14

"'The election of an American Pope, the first American Pope … there’s a signal here that the church is taking a side in what’s happening around the globe,' said Steven Millies, a professor at Catholic Theological Union. …

'We are watching authoritarianism swell in all parts of the globe, but is fueled most visibly by the Trump administration in Washington, D.C.,' Millies said."

~ Jack Jenkins

#LeoXIV #pope #Trump #Vance #RobertPrevost
/13

https://religionnews.com/2025/05/08/by-electing-pope-leo-xiv-some-see-vatican-making-very-american-political-play/

"But the strategy collapsed. Cardinals ultimately united around Robert Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV, who helped push Francis’ historic reform adding women to the Vatican’s bishop-nomination process."

#LeoXIV #pope #Trump #Vance #RobertPrevost
/12

"This wasn’t their first attempt: back in 2018, Napa’s founder Tim Busch helped fund the 'Red Hat Report,' using former FBI and CIA agents to dig up dirt on progressive cardinals seen as potential successors to Francis, particularly regarding abuse cases.

This year, similar smear tactics surfaced, with Trump’s former Vatican ambassador Brian Burch reportedly backing a false health rumor about Cardinal Pietro Parolin, a leading contender."

#LeoXIV #pope #Trump #Vance #RobertPrevost
/11