One Ordinary American Catholic’s Reaction to the New Pope
The Bride of Christ continuously surprises me in many and delightful ways.
Delighted surprise.
That was my reaction to the announcement of the new Pope on May 9. It was already a bit of a surreal day. It started at 5 a.m. We were awakened from a call from my mother-in-law’s rest home. My wife picked up the call. A member of the staff gave her the news, that my wife’s mother had just passed away. While I was still processing what I overheard, my wife was up immediately and knocking on bedroom doors to wake up her visiting family members. Several had come to town to give last goodbyes to their mother—we knew she did not have many days or hours left.
Just before my wife knocked on my brother-in-law’s door, he had an experience. He had traveled all that previous day from Pennsylvania to see his mother one last time. However, when he arrived, she had already lost consciousness for good. He had made it before she expired but was unable to speak to her.
He woke up early that next morning, around 4:45 a.m. He could not go back to sleep and had gotten up to go to the bathroom. He was just settling himself back into his bed when he suddenly realized that his mother was with him in the room. She was there waving happily to him, giving him her last goodbye. The vision ended just a moment prior to my wife’s knocking at his door.
This is not an uncommon experience, I have come to learn. The good Lord often allows those who die in his graces the gift of visiting their loved ones one last time before leaving for their eternal resting place. What a gift; what a good God we have!
This account came from a reliable source, from someone who was not prone to hallucinatory delusions. It told me a few things. One, it was yet another confirmation of life after death. Two, it demonstrated the love and mercy of God, and three, as most immediately important, it told us that my mother-in-law had indeed died in the friendship of our Lord. Certainly, no such gift would be given to a damned soul. Our frequent prayers for her had been answered.
My head buzzed with this story all morning even as I watched a live broadcast focused on the chimney on the roof of the Sistine Chapel. I had already seen live the black smoke from one of the previous votes for the Pope. I knew next to nothing about the candidates. I had heard of Cardinal Sarah, and that he was a holy man, a force of nature. I had heard the name of a Cardinal with “Pizza” in his name. That sounded like a joke. But that was all I knew.
There was a lot of talk about how a majority of the Cardinals had been appointed by the late Pope Francis. There were progressive Candidates, and traditional ones. Frankly, it really meant little to me. It was all out of my sphere of influence. The next Pope would be the next Pope regardless of who I was rooting for, or even knew of.
You see, I knew that the Church, the Bride of Christ, is guided by the Holy Spirit. Whomever the next Pope was, he would be enthroned by, at a minimum, the permissive will of God. In my lifetime, there had been two canonized Saints, Pope Paul VI and John Paul II, and one I believe will be one day, Benedict XVI. I also knew from history that we had had our bad Popes as well. Yet, regardless, the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against her.
Then the white smoke flowed and announcement came. I had not dared to predict, but if I had it never would have been this: an American Pope who named himself Leo XIV. Wow. He was Robert Prevost from Chicago, Illinois, and again, I never heard of him. Mixed reports came in from everywhere. Old tweets indicating a propensity for mass immigration (so the reports said) and environmentalism. Another source indicated he was a registered Republican with a solid “conservative” voting record.
Frankly this was all to be expected. A good Catholic prelate, when voting, would vote for candidates who were pro-life and pro-family (these tend to be Republican). As to the environment, the Church teaches us that we are stewards of this world and that we need to take good care of it. And as to migration, can anyone really expect any other message from a Cardinal other than a human-focused one? Would he ever actually argue for closed borders, with a general “screw the huddled masses” theme? Hardly not.
The point being, we should not judge the man based on our preconceived notions of politics. And we should not pre-judge how and what he will do in his papacy. Give him some time and we will see.
I have nothing but hope and excitement for our new Pope—God bless him!
