Habemus Papam

And he's from Chicago!

We're in good company, Chicago is one of only four places on earth outside of Italy since 1523 that can claim the title "birthplace of a Pope". So we have every right to be stoked, which we are. Perhaps no one is more stoked than our Mayor, Brandon Johnson who proclaimed yesterday, May 8, 2025, the greatest day in Chicago history. Here are some thoughts:

Chicago Chicago

While the rest of the world contemplated the ramifications of the first Pope born in the United States, what impact Pope Leo XIV will have on the largest institution in the world, and what impact THAT will have on the world stage, we here in Chicago were focused on shall we say, more parochial issues. Celebrating my outright giddiness of the moment, shortly after the man formerly known as Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost stepped onto the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica and delivered his first words to the world as the new Pope, I made my first appearance in months on social media, asking the question it turned out was on the minds of most of my fellow Chicagoans:

Is he a Cubs or a White Sox fan?

Less than a minute after I hit "Post", someone responded with this: "Well he's from the South Side so..."

A moment later someone else responded: "ABC has just reported that he's a Cubs fan."

Hmmm I thought, a South Side Cubs fan. If that were true, then he's a contrarian like me, in my case, a North Side Sox fan. I commented that quality may serve him well in his new job. 

The silly banter went on in that vein for hours:

"South Side Cubs Fan. In other words, a heretic." wrote one friend.

"It might not bode well for his power of prayer if he's a Sox fan" wrote another.

It was delightful.

Another hot button topic on people's minds, just as silly, but equally understandable given the circumstances of being from the same place as the Pope is this:

Do I know anybody who knows him?

I learned the answer to that question before his papacy was announced, and it didn't even have a Chicago connection. After I received the call from my mother excitedly telling me: "There's white smoke coming out of the chimney of the Sistine Chapel!", I went to the front of the office to learn that my two colleagues there had not only heard the news, but were streaming live coverage on their computers. So I camped out behind one of them as I thought this historic event was an experience that should be shared. Boy was I right.

After what seemed an eternity waiting for the big reveal, my colleague told me that her mother knew one of the Cardinals who was considered a leading candidate for Pope. True to form, my response was measured and tactful: "Holy shit you're kidding me!"

The two of us however agreed that being from the United States, Cardinal Prevost didn't stand a chance.  

Then came the announcement. "Holy shit you're kidding me!" was her response.

She then proceeded to show me a picture of the new Pope taken by her mother when the two of them were classmates at Villanova outside of  Philadelphia. They were at a Halloween party and in the picture, a very young Rob Prevost was dressed up as (a very young) Groucho Marx. 

So I guess that means I have no more than two degrees of separation from Pope Leo XIV, in other words, I know somebody who knows somebody who knows the Pope. But wait a second, I've actually met the mother of my workmate so maybe I'm only one degree of separation. OK maybe that's pushing it a bit.

Later that day I learned of an even closer connection. My cousin has connections with a local priest, the chaplain at St. Rita High School in Chicago who is a fellow Augustinian and good friends with the new Pope.

If I dig a little deeper, I might find an even closer connection. In case you care and why wouldn't you, stay tuned.

Then there's this very pressing question:

But where is he really from?

This came up after I told another colleague that I had just found out that Robert Francis Prevost grew up in the suburb of Dolton. "Oh then he's really not from Chicago" she said. My mother had the same reaction. Well, I assured my colleague, Dolton shares a border with Chicago so it's certainly close enough. "Oh so you mean it's not like Joliet?" she said. I didn't bother to tell her that I know people from Joliet who certainly consider themselves part of greater Chicago.

This reminded me of an online list I commented on in this post which dealt with things people don't like about Chicago. One item on the list was "People who live in the suburbs but say they're from Chicago." 

Which made me wonder if all the folks who are bothered by suburbanites claiming themselves to be Chicagoans, will refuse to claim this Pope as one of their own. I'm guessing they'll make an exception in this case, special dispensation if you will. 

Then came the memes. My favorite ones were the comparisons to other unlikely, or "that'll happen when hell freezes over" types of events. My son pointed out this trope that was making the rounds of Chicago media yesterday:

The people who said that Chicago will have a Pope before the (Chicago) Bears will have a 4,000 yard passer, turned out to be right.

Indeed.

Obviously I don't know the man, but I imagine Pope Leo (or Pope Bob as we'll no doubt refer to him here) would get a chuckle out of all this silliness, or at least I hope he would. It turns out that Pope Leo XIV, may be from Chicago, but he is hardly provincial. He may be an American by birth, but he is truly a man of the world. As an example, he speaks five languages fluently and can read two more. 

In his first words as Pope to the tens of thousands gathered in St. Peter's Square to welcome him and to the hundreds of millions viewing on TV or streaming video, he took a moment to break from Italian to send a shout out in Spanish to the city of Chiclayo, Peru where he served as bishop from 2015 until 2023. His connection to Peru goes all the way back to 1985 where he worked as a missionary during a particularly challenging period in that country's history. Like us back home in Chicago, the people of Chiclayo and indeed much of Peru claim him as their own, as well as they should. 

He sent no similar shout out to Chicago nor spoke one word of English from that platform which made some ultra right-wing media folks lose their minds. *

All the more power to him I say. 

The comments on my trivial Facebook post were not all trivial, this one for example:

"It’s a shock. All the prognosticators were in agreement that an American was out of the question because of the current world political climate. Now I see that the world political climate may have been the very reason he was chosen."

There has been much speculation as to why in their infinite wisdom, the College of Cardinals selected an American to be the next Pope. Before the new Pope was elected, one TV priest-commentator stated that the Cardinals would only pick an American if they saw a serious degradation of this country's political system. 

Interesting.

Here's another:

"Simply glad that the American with the largest constituency is no longer our President, furthermore, one who possesses a moral compass."

That one particularly hit home.

Despite the euphoria in this country among people like me who don't believe being called "progressive" is an epithet, we have to be careful about our assumptions, especially trying to make this Pope in our own image. As I pointed out 12 years ago shortly after Pope Francis was elected: don't expect to see the Pope coming out in favor of reproductive rights, gay weddings at St. Peter's, or even many of the less contentious issues like the ordination of women or married priests in the Church anytime soon. Like a massive ship, it's difficult and takes a very long time for an institution with well over one billion members to change course, that is, without sinking the ship.

But like his predecessor, Pope Leo is on record stating unequivocally that he holds nothing sacred in national borders, that he prefers bringing people together rather than keeping them apart and prefers building bridges rather than walls. In my last post I linked to the encyclical written by Pope Francis last February to the US bishops, denouncing in no uncertain terms the notion put forward by the current US Vice President that Catholic teaching supports the mass deportation of refugees and other immigrants being carried out by the current administration.  

If anything, Pope Leo XIV was even more direct in his response than his predecessor as also in February, in an X account under then Cardinal Prevost's name came this tweet: 

“JD Vance is wrong, Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for others.”

It should be noted that there is no confirmation that Cardinal Prevost actually wrote those words, but he has to date, not refuted them. 

There is sweet justice in the fact that Vance used the writings of St. Augustine to justify his reasoning. As we have all learned in the last two days, Leo is himself a member of the Augustinian order and was in fact for a while, the leader of that order. It remains to be seen whether Vance will choose to debate the new Pope on the issue which would be like me debating Albert Einstein on the issue of gravity.

One thing is crystal clear: Pope Leo's heart and soul lies in the devotion of service to the poor and disadvantaged of the world, to human dignity and to social justice. In that, he is a man who lives the Gospel both in word and deed, and I have little doubt that he will make not only we the people of Chicago and our brothers and sisters in Chiclayo who call him our own, proud, but people of good will everywhere, be they Christians or not.

And the cherry on top?

It turns out he's a White Sox fan after all, proving once and for all he knows a thing or two about suffering.

Saints be praised.  

* The ultra right-wing pundits would have really lost their minds if they had read this quote from Pope Leo XIV. It's a good thing it's in Spanish:

"Soy peruano. Porque uno no es de donde nace… sino de donde entrega el alma."

"I am Peruvian. Because one isn't from where he is born, but rather from where he delivers his soul."