They named a new Pope this week and he’s from the south side of Chicago..
No, that’s not a set-up for a joke, though it might have been a few weeks ago.
No one expected an American pope, especially right now. But the late Pope Francis was savvy and clever and the more you read about the behind-the-scenes machinations over who could be his successor, the harder it is not to think that he understood the world as it is today, where it was likely headed and to see him moving the deck chairs of the Titanic around accordingly.
My thoughts, not his.
I don’t know much about the Vatican but I’ve done some reading AND I saw Conclave. Which makes me just as qualified to give my opinion on this as anyone. Probably more.
But what else can only I say about the appointment of Robert Prevost, now known round the world as Pope Leo XIV, that’s relevant.
…Here’s one thing:
When you realize you are this razor-thin close in age to the newly anointed Pope it becomes undeniable you have far less time in front of you than behind you. And it makes you a de facto lay expert.
In other words: Popes are often old men. Which in turn means…..
They say with age comes wisdom but I’m not so sure. I know lots of people my age and older who are idiots, drowning themselves and those around them in willful ignorance.
I hate willful ignorance because it’s a choice. To be ill-informed, stupid and moronic for your own personal reasons. This means that unless you are a hermit who literally sees no one and has zero footprint in the world, your decision to remain consistently baseline idiotic on subjects too numerous to name enables countless imbecilic actions on your part (Note: And on the part of others if you have influence on friends, family or followers) that have potentially damaging effects on the rest of us.
And sometimes even lethal.
You know the kind of people I’m talking about.
Or at least you know, well, ONE of them.
As a non-practicing Jewish person, and one who was mostly only culturally Jewish at best, I haven’t paid much attention to popes as a whole. Though, of course, these days, it’s impossible to NOT pay attention to anything this pervasive in the zeitgeist unless you work really, really hard at it.
And not only don’t I like to be stupid, I’m still superficial enough to not even want to appear stupid.
So when a kid from the Windy City, whose vintage graduation picture reminds me of any number of classmates in my 1970s era yearbook from either high school or college or both (Note: Guess) becomes the spiritual leader of about 1.4 billion people, I can’t help but take notice. It was like David or Andrew or Dennis or Ricky from my graduating class had suddenly and quite publicly outpaced all of the rest of us who ever aspired to make it and be noticed.
And just know when I say that I went to Queens College at the same time Jerry Seinfeld did.
Anyway, Bob (as his brother and those with whom he went to seminary school call him) came up at a time in the late 1960s and early to mid-seventies that’s quite familiar to me. I knew this the moment I looked at his photo – the one with sideburns and before scentless hair gel, I mean product.
At that point, and in that era, we were not having stupidity at all. We being the majority of the baby boomers of all ages in the country coming of age. Sure, we had distractions – some pharmaceutical and others more…carnal? (Note: Okay, maybe not always the latter in some cases) but we really did see peace and love as a first step cure all cure for everything. Not the only step but the road through which the best outcomes in the world could happen.
All these years later, actually most especially all these years later, I don’t think we were wrong.
Nor does Bob. I mean, Leo. Pope Leo. (Note: I know, at the very least, He will forgive me).
He’s supported immigrants and minorities, condemned the murder of George Floyd, urged people to get vaccines during the COVID pandemic and advocated for policies to care for children and the poor rather than turn our backs on them, especially the way we were doing during the first Trump administration and in the years since. Don’t believe me? Click here.
Several months ago he even publicly corrected US Vice President J.D. Vance when Vance proclaimed there was an order of “caring” in Catholic dogma and that the list began with “yourself” and “your family” before all others. To that, the then Cardinal Prevost, and now Pope Leo XIV, proclaimed on Twitter:
JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for others
And alongside it he posted a link to an opinion piece in the National Catholic Reporter, a liberal leaning publication, backing up that view with religious doctrine.
Translation from another baby boomer this razor thin close in age to him:
Oh, it’s on.
Because as he and I and so many of our contemporaries in school learned in our formatives years directly from Dr. Martin Luther King:
“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”
Especially when we find ourselves promoted into a position of power to help make that happen.
The Byrds – “Turn! Turn! Turn!”
notes from a chair 