I Like the New Pope, I Hope

Was the selection of the new pope rigged? The results almost felt predetermined. It happened so fast. I recall previous ones taking days with numerous attempts to elect a new pope. My next surprise came when the Vatican elected an American. I thought I would never witness that in my lifetime.

Then, I began to notice small hints about why it might have happened so quickly and why it involved an American. Robert Prevost was ordained in 1982 at the age of twenty-seven in the Diocese of Chicago, a conservative diocese. Shortly thereafter, he went to the missionary district of Peru, where he served as a parish pastor, diocesan official, seminary teacher, and administrator. In 2001, he was elected as the prior general of the Order of Saint Augustine and was based in Rome from 2001 to 2013. In 2015, he returned to Peru as the bishop of Chiclayo. He remained there until 2023, when Pope Francis appointed him prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops (the department of the Vatican that chooses new bishops) and president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.

Here is the first clue as to why he became pope. He and Pope Francis were friends who thought alike, so much so that Francis appointed him to oversee the vetting of clergy to be consecrated as bishops. To me, this is a genteel way of saying Francis appointed him to ensure that only liberal or centrists were chosen as bishops, many of whom would later be promoted to cardinals. This resolved the question of why the election went so quickly. Pope Francis spent his papacy replacing conservative bishops and cardinals with more liberal and centrist clergy. No one knows who else was in the running for pope, but by this time, Francis had replaced the College of Cardinals with his preferred more liberal clergy, which will be a part of Francis’s legacy.

Francis knew Robert was a progressive and informed the cardinals that Robert would be the right priest to guide the church into the twenty-first century.

Given the rapid pace of the election, I can only assume that the choice was predetermined by the College of Cardinals, and the initial vote served merely as a courtesy before electing Robert.

After the election, I received word from the Westar Institute, a highly progressive think tank composed of scholars and a few clergy, that Pope Leo XIV had read works from scholars such as John Dominic Crossan and thought positively about the Westar Institute.

Francis understood that by promoting the next pope from North America, the church leadership was now prepared to become significantly more progressive and enlightened.

I know I’m reading between the lines, but I see Leo XIV as the pope who will open the door to accepting the LGBTQIA+ community and supporting the ordination of gay clergy. He might even be bold enough to finally restore women to positions of leadership and ordination, which, incidentally, the church took away from Jesus’s original practices, which were rich in feminine leadership.

Here are some of my hopes with the arrival of a new pope:

1. The Catholic Church will no longer reject divorced individuals. Divorced people don’t need rejection; they need love and acceptance.
2. The church will extend full citizenship to the gay and lesbian community by participating in their weddings and creating more opportunities for them.
3. The church under Leo will continue the work of the ecumenical councils to promote more ecumenical and interfaith dialogue, encouraging all religions to work together for world peace and the power of agape.

What do you think of the new pope?

PeaceLoveJoyHopeKindness

Bil

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P.S. People often ask me provocative questions about current events, both religious and secular. I have found that some of these questions are being asked universally. I’ll be periodically alternating regular articles with one of those questions and my answer. I invite you to send me your question to bilaulenbach@yahoo.com.

 

Photo courtesy of Edgar Beltrán