Today’s posting is a Special Edition.
For that reason, the Captain will not mention how the stock markets continue their rollercoaster ride in reaction to the inconsistent leadership of the President, how this week he lied about a trade deal with Great Britain and lied about a trade deal with China, and how he threatened American toy-maker Mattel with a 100% tariff as if Mattel was its own country. I won’t mention how he still insists he has brokered 200 trade deals already, although a White House spokesperson clarified that he meant “sub-deals within the deals”.
The Captain promises to not mention the ongoing gutting of the federal government, although a judge has just put a temporary halt to the President’s reductions of force, citing the fact that it is the role of Congress to reorganize the federal government not the President. I will not mention how DOGE has not even come close to its assigned $2 trillion in cuts, nor will I point out that most of the immediate cuts were of agencies that gave oversight to Elon Musk’s businesses. And I refuse to mention how the current administration is spending way more than previous administrations despite those cuts.
I will not mention Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who remains in detention at CECOT in defiance of a Supreme Court order to bring him home. Truth is, I can’t say anything about him because the President has declared this case a national security issue and nothing more can be revealed publicly.
And I will not mention how the President has golfed away 21.8% of his time in office.
Nope, you won’t hear me say a word about any of those things in the following post.
On Thursday the world celebrated as a new Pope was elected.
In a new Vatican tradition, a seagull makes the official proclamation!
Just kidding.
As you recall, the beloved Pope Francis died on Easter Monday, following a lengthy illness and a brief visit with Vice President J.D. Vance.
White smoke went up on just the second day of Conclave and a short while later the announcement was made: Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost has been elected.
The new Pope will go by the name Leo XIV.
There will be much said about this new pope in the days and months and years to come.
Already we know he is only 69 – just seven years older than the Captain! – so there is a good chance he will sit in St. Peter’s chair for many years.
He was born in Chicago – the first U.S.-born pope – but spent most of his ministry as a missionary in Peru.
CAPTAIN’S NOTE: Mates, please stop saying he's “the first American pope”. Pope Francis was the first American pope – born in South America.
Yes, that is America!
Pope Francis called Cardinal Prevost to a role in the Vatican in 2023. The two were close and, while Prevost is an Augustinian instead of a Jesuit, there is no reason to believe Pope Leo will change anything Pope Francis set in motion.
The tradition of choosing a papal name often gives us insight about the Pope and the direction in which he will take the church.
The Pope himself explained that Pope Leo XIII (who served from 1878-1903) spoke forcefully on the rights of workers in an 1891 encyclical Rerum novarum, in which he supported fair wages, safe working conditions, and the formation of trade unions. He affirmed the rights to property and free enterprise, opposed socialism and laissez-faire capitalism. He was known as the “Pope of the Workers”.
We can expect more of the same from Pope Leo XIV.
But Fr. Lou Meiman, priest at St. Teresa of Calcutta near
Louisville, KY, had another take on the selection of the name, and it’s a
beautiful piece:
What a masterful and poetic choice of a name Pope Leo XIV has made. Brother Leo was Francis of Assisi’s best friend, constant companion and ardent follower. When Francis founded his order The Little Brothers, Leo was the first to join him. When Francis walked unarmed into the camp of the Sultan to try to bring an end to the warring of the crusades, Leo was the only one at his side.
When Francis received the stigmata while in prayer, Leo was praying with him. When Francis lay dying Leo tended to him and comforted him. And when Francis was gone, Leo attempted to carry on the way of poverty Francis had blazed by smashing the marble box being used to collect donations to build a great church to enshrine his body. Could the pope who now bears his name have made it any more clear how fiercely he intends to continue Papa Francisco’s legacy? All it took was one word.
In support of that, here are the first public words from the new Pope, Leo XIV:
Peace be with you! Dearest brothers and sisters, this was the first greeting of the risen Christ, the good shepherd who gave His life for the flock of God. I, too, would like this greeting of peace to enter your hearts, to reach your families and all people, wherever they are; and all the peoples, and all the earth: Peace be with you.
This is the peace of the Risen Christ, a disarming and humble and preserving peace. It comes from God. God, who loves all of us, without any limits or conditions. Let us keep in our ears the weak but always brave voice of Pope Francis, who blessed Rome - the Pope who blessed Rome and the world that day on the morning of Easter.
Allow me to continue that same blessing. God loves us, all of us, evil will not prevail. We are all in the hands of God. Without fear, united, hand in hand with God and among ourselves, we will go forward. We are disciples of Christ, Christ goes before us, and the world needs His light. Humanity needs Him like a bridge to reach God and His love. You help us to build bridges with dialogue and encounter so we can all be one people always in peace.
Thank you Pope Francis!
Thank you to my Cardinal brothers who chose me to be the Successor of Peter and to walk together with you as a united Church searching all together for peace and justice, working together as women and men, faithful to Jesus Christ without fear, proclaiming Christ, to be missionaries, faithful to the gospel.
I am a son of Saint Augustine, an Augustinian. He said, “With you I am a Christian, for you a bishop." So may we all walk together towards that homeland that God has prepared for us.
To the Church of Rome, a special greeting: We have to look together how to be a missionary Church, building bridges, dialogue, always open to receiving with open arms for everyone, like this square, open to all, to all who need our charity, our presence, dialogue, love.
As one might imagine, the MAGA crowd is already pissing and moaning about the selection. As Cardinal, Prevost dared correct JD Vance’s poor theology about who Jesus tells us to love and he vocally opposed Trumpf’s deportations of immigrants.
Talking heads on FOX News are declaring they know more about what the Roman Catholic Church should do - as opposed to the whole College of Cardinals who both serve and represent 1-billion members worldwide!
And for now – just for fun – the Captain would point out that the whole world is celebrating a man whose chosen name does not match the name on his birth certificate, driver’s license, or passport.
And he wears a dress.
May God bless Pope Leo XIV with wisdom and good health for many years to come.
