Pray for Pope Leo XIV. May he be a tremendous blessing to the world, a true vessel of the Lord.
Well, we have an American pope. The second pope from the Americas is from the United States. But he is a Chicagoan who is palatable to Europeans and others who are not the greatest fans of the still relatively new kid on the block (U.S.).
In all humility, when there was buzz about Cardinal Prevost, I dismissed it. I am infamously terrible at making predictions — political and papal. It’s okay, I own it.
I’m excited he’s an Augustinian. You don’t get much more powerful than St. Augustine’s Confessions. His is the best conversion story in the history of Christianity next to St. Paul. And arguably more relatable, because most of us are terrible (or excellent, depending how you look at it) sinners, but most of us weren’t executing Christians yesterday.
The unmistakable, stand-out reality of this moment in the life of the church is that there are an unprecedented number of people paying attention to the introduction of Leo XIV to the world. Why were people watching livestreams of a chimney? Even when everyone knew there would be no white smoke last night? Because hearts are restless. And they are restless for God.
As a friend put it earlier today, people are ravenous for God. And He so wants us to receive His perfect gifts — mercy, love, and healing.
Perhaps this will be over-quoted in the coming days and years. But, really, it could never be meditated on enough:
Great are you, O Lord, and exceedingly worthy of praise; your power is immense, and your wisdom beyond reckoning. And so we men, who are a due part of your creation, long to praise you — we also carry our mortality about with us, carry the evidence of our sin and with it the proof that you thwart the proud. You arouse us so that praising you may bring us joy, because you have made us and drawn us to yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.
Not to be overly dramatic, but one of the cool things about Prevost is that neither camp, so to speak, neither ideological silo, as Pope Francis would put it, considers him one of its own here in the United States. Though you can point to things, he’s not MAGA or anti-MAGA. He’s a quieter, more disciplined priest. We’re going to get to know him together, throughout the world. He’s not overly, overtly American. (It’s not like he’s a Yankees or Red Sox fan being foisted on the world. Because I’m a New Yorker, I’m going to dismiss the distinct character of a Cubs fan as having a power like an East Coast team.)
In all seriousness, people are longing for God. And people are longing for the world and for politics to make sense. I take tremendous consolation in Prevost choosing Leo as his name. Pray that we will see a renewal of interest in — and appreciation of — Catholic social teaching, which can set so much in our world aright. It makes us more human — and better neighbors to one another.
There is zero coincidence in the timing of Pope Francis’s death. (I don’t believe in coincidences, of course.) Easter! The feast of all feasts — the feast of the Risen Lord. He went out being a suffering servant, a spiritual father, even to the vice president of the United States. And because of the breaking news early Monday morning, we did not have time to fully reflect on all the reports of long Easter vigil Masses with new Catholics entering the church. Something is going on. Could a citizen of the United States lead a great awakening for the world? We’re tired of secularism. That’s why people were overcrowding St. Peter’s Square. We want God. Pray for Pope Leo XIV. May he be a tremendous blessing to the world, a true vessel of the Lord.