Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, 69, from Chicago, is the first ever pope from the US. He will be known as Leo XIV.
A leader with global experience, he spent much of his career as a missionary in South America and most recently led a powerful Vatican office for bishop appointments. cnn.it/4ddrlsO— CNN (@cnn.com) May 8, 2025 at 3:15 PM
Finley Peter Dunne would be so proud!
I grew up in a blue-collar urban parish at the same time as Robert Prevost. The Bronx was (is) not the same as south-side Chicago, but I’m assuming from what I’ve read the culture was similar — many first & second generation Americans with strong ties to their old countries. Community business was a continual competition between the Irish and the Italians; other ethnic groups were very much treated as oddities. With a ‘French’ (Canadian?) father and a Hispanic mother, it would have been very much in young Robert’s self-interest to hone his networking skills. Especially since he was considered an ‘egghead’.
It also doesn’t surprise that he became a citizen of the Spanish-speaking nation where hw spent so many years…
I think it’s important for US Catholics to not claim the Pope as only our own. I doubt he would have become Pope were it not for his years in Peru, including time as a parish priest.
— Dana Houle (@danahoule.bsky.social) May 8, 2025 at 2:13 PM
Robert Francis Prevost, Pope Leon XIV, is a US born French / Spanish Catholic cardinal from Chicago, nationalized Peruvian. He is a member of the Order of Saint Augustine (OSA) and was ordained a priest in 1982. Gave special greetings & thanks to Peru. Close ally of Pope Francis.
— Anonymous (@youranoncentral.bsky.social) May 8, 2025 at 2:08 PM
This is a great article from a few days ago about his family & his baby boom childhood growing up in the south suburbs of Chicago chicago.suntimes.com/religion/202…
— Dana Houle (@danahoule.bsky.social) May 8, 2025 at 1:56 PM
When Francis got in I had many conversations like –
THEM. Abortion
ME. Do you know what a Jesuit is
THEM. No. Gays
ME. The Jesuit way is to find God in all things, which can lead to a surprisingly humble, nuanced & pragm–
THEM. No. Dirty War— Justin Sherin (@wychstreet.bsky.social) May 8, 2025 at 12:25 PM
If he picked Leo XIV because he’s inspired by Leo XIII, whooo, boy, this is
A. Great for the Church
B. Bad for all the rightwing American converts like JD Vance & most of the worst people in America who are Catholic
Look up Rarum Novarum. Catholic Social Teachings.
That’s Leo XIII— Dana Houle (@danahoule.bsky.social) May 8, 2025 at 1:34 PM
The new Pope didn't tweet once in 2024. In 2025, he's posted 5 times, in which he:
– Criticized JD Vance's views on Catholicism and Jesus
– Posted an article opposing Trump's immigration policies
– Retweeted twice about the Pope's health
– Retweeted a criticism of Trump & Bukele's laughter at KAG.— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social) May 8, 2025 at 1:34 PM
The worst people in the world are mad.
— No, Not Me Hat (@kenwhite.bsky.social) May 8, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Somewhere, Mel Gibson is staggering naked into the woods with a dead elk on his back.
— Kerr Avon ?? (@kerravon.bsky.social) May 8, 2025 at 1:39 PM
jackmac
As I wrote in a dead post, my first reaction was that new pope — a fellow native of Chicago’s South Side — might offer some divine intervention to help resurrect the pathetic White Sox, again the worst in the American League.
WOW! I’m first? That never happens.
raven
I was admonished that he’s from the burbs, Not Chicago. As someone from there I find it silly.
cain
Sounds like a good guy.
Reddit was slagging him because he had protected some pedophile priest. I think the entire church is guilty of that so I don’t know if we want to die on a hill like that.
coin operated
Let’s hope he can continue Francis’ work of dragging these troglodytes into the 21st century.
dmsilev
@jackmac: I’m pretty sure there are some things which are beyond even the infallible representative of an omnipotent deity, and making the White Sox not suck would be high on that list.
Something for the theologians and philosophers to argue about I guess.
prostratedragon
I was wondering if he had a Chicago connection when I heard he was American. When he and I were growing up, the city proper was proportionately almost twice as Catholic as it is now.
prostratedragon
@dmsilev: Only in recent years have I approached this conclusion.
raven
@prostratedragon: Back when Isiah Thomas had to change busses 4 times to get to Westchester St Joes!
narya
Okay, so the two best things on the internet today, at least on Bluesky:
From Hector Diaz (iamhectordiaz): A Chicago Pope implies the existence of an MLA Pope and APA Pope
From John Scalzi, in response to that: The AP pope looks askance at this heresy
SpaceUnit
Enough ceremony. He needs to get off his ass and start poping.
Old Man Shadow
Much as I wanted two or three guys to come out saying “I am the pope” and get into a slap fight with each other, this sounds like a positive move.
Now, I’m not expecting landmark changes, the inertia of the Institution is rather strong, but hey, any positive movement measured in millimeters is still positive movement.
Jay
@jackmac:
As I pointed out, remember what happened the last time the White Sox won?
WTFGhost
I’m hopeful that he criticized Vance. There’s no Catholic way to pretend that you’re not supposed to love all people. Even if you felt that you had to deport every immigrant in the US (and remember, there’s no special effort to find lawbreakers), you can do it without needless cruelty, cruelty which Vance wholeheartedly supports.
It’s really screwed up to use Christianity to justify a desire to inflict cruelty on others, but, hey, people are screwed up, and people like Vance went full-blown tap-and-die set on themselves, to get themselves really screwed up.
Early word is new Leo (whose name matches my cat, which is going to be weird) is “more conservative” on roles of women, and LGBTQEtc. issues, but, doesn’t seem likely to want to make big changes. I’m hopeful. (Ex-catholic, so I still kinda-sorta want the home team to do well.)
zhena gogolia
Good that he’s criticized Vance.
It was only yesterday that I realized that his formal name is not J. D. Vance but JD Vance. How Appalachian of him. 🤮
zhena gogolia
Is this yet again the Trump effect? The rest of the world is going to go all liberal to make up for us?
sab
Seems like Leo XIV may continue Francis’s work of depoliticizing the Church’s work and returning the Church to what Jesus preached.
Baud
Wake me up when he’s on Blue sky.
j/k
Baud
@Old Man Shadow:
I’ll be pleased if there’s no retrogression.
Raven
@Jay: It was ugly.
WTFGhost
@zhena gogolia: Well, if you were a big drinker, and then you saw some guy who’d killed his liver, you might start moderating your drinking, right? Seeing Trump, you see a caricature of right wing views actually playing out, in real time, and there’s no question that he’s sane or sensible. It would make sense if the world of good folks had a leftward turn, as those who were drunk on oligarchy now see what a fugly hangover it has.
jonas
You’d be surprised at how often that has actually happened, esp. in the Middle Ages. In 1159, the two popes who claimed to be elected got into a physical tussle over the coronation mantle. Good times.
Suzanne
I am seeing stuff on Xhitter that he has Louisiana Creole grandparents.
wjca
So, Trump has just become the second most important American in the world. He must be so furious.
trollhattan
Laura LIPS Loomer hates him already so he’s aces in my book.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f3619f05958886d3763e9653e33351efdb9649f45f089ba21a366acbd5bb1d47.jpg
Hildebrand
My guess is that Leo is the compromise choice – more Francis than not, but not so progressive that he spooks the reactionaries.
Of course, this means the loudest American Catholics, who are all beyond reactionary, will freak out completely.
All in all, it could’ve been so much worse.
trollhattan
@wjca:
He was set to grab All the Headlines with whatever fuckknuckle deal he did with the UK and this has kicked that into the weeds. Donny no like.
cain
Things are heating up in India and Pakistan. I’m not sure how this is going to go. But someone is benefitting with these two fighting.
Belafon
“The Pope doesn’t understand America” argument is completely gone.
trollhattan
@Suzanne:
What if he’s a {{globalist}}?!?
Hildebrand
@jonas: There is a great story about the time when there were three duly elected popes – which takes a bit, so I can share it later.
jonas
@zhena gogolia: I think that’s certainly part of it. It’s also important to remember, though, that Francis had successfully stocked the college of cardinals with a ton of people he knew would carry on his work, just like JP II stocked it with a bunch of reactionaries who put Benedict on the papal throne.
While early indications are that our new pope is almost certainly not going to be a Benedict-style conservative, you also don’t get this high in the Catholic hierarchy by being a radical progressive, either, even under Francis. There are no Cardinal Bellinis (Stanley Tucci’s character in Conclave — great movie, btw.), unfortunately, so we shouldn’t be shocked when the time comes and our new Pope Leo more or less affirms the church’s traditional teachings on, say, contraception or the ordination of women.
dm
What’s “No, not me, hat” responding to? The post is invisible to the Blueskyless.
wjca
@trollhattan: How could he not be? It claims, after all, to be the universal church.
Suzanne
@trollhattan: Oooooh! Scandalous!
Omnes Omnibus
@Belafon: “He’s been away too long.”
Bill Arnold
I see the “sacramental Malört” joke is already out there.
ETA: Also, an argument about Deep Dish vs Tavern-Style Eucharists.
sab
@Hildebrand: Couldn’t have been much better.
Also too American English is his native language. Sucks for ROW but when he speaks we in America cannot pretend there was a mistranslation.
And he speaks Spanish and has lived most of his life not in America.
I am not Catholic but as High Church Episcopalian I do keep an eye on them. So close but so far. I am heartened.
Melancholy Jaques
As one who was raised Catholic (i.e., hasn’t been to a mass other than weddings & funerals for decades) & as one who is about the same age as the New Pope, I’m going to forgo my usual harsh commentary about The Church & hope that he is guided by Matthew 25:34-40.
twbrandt
@trollhattan: if people complain that he’s a globalist, wait until they discover what “catholic” means.
ETA: wjca got there first.
divF
@Hildebrand: Not to be confused with The Three Christs of Ypsilanti.
sab
Also let us thank God that Benedict died before he could take over again when Feancis died.
jonas
@Hildebrand: IIRC, that happened a couple of times — at least once in the 11th century (resolved by Henry III in 1046) and again in 1409.
Old School
@Jay:
2005?
Or are you thinking of the Cubs? (2016)
stinger
@Hildebrand:
I was just thinking that you’d probably have some *stories*!
BC in Illinois
Leo XIV is the first Augustinian Pope. Villanova is proud.
There have been comments among the Lutherans to the effect of,
Hildebrand
@jonas: Yep, the 11th century story is a fascinating problem of a king really wanting the pope who would crown him as emperor to be ‘above reproach’, and the simoniacal popes just weren’t cutting it.
The 15th century disaster is whole different category – lol
Jay
@Old School:
2005.
Moondoggus
Coming to you from Chicago, city of big shoulders, I’m here with Bill Swersky.
Bill, if the Pope was American, where would he be from?
Easy Todd, he’d be from Chicago, and a Bears fan. Da Bearss!
Old School
@Jay: What happened then?
SiubhanDuinne
Not in the least Catholic (far from it), haven’t lived in Chicagoland since 1962 (not a typo) — but DAMN I’m proud and excited!
sab
I am so excited to see something positive in the world ( New Pope not so bad! Like Francis!) instead of whatever Trump antics are distracting us from the very bad his minions are doing when our press gets distracted from his antics. Data theft. People deported and exiled. No more American medical and logistical aid for foreign countries facing crises.
That foreign medical and disaster aid made countries actually like us.
Trump lives in a zero sum world. If everyone else doesn’t despise us then we are weak on the world stage. Such a sad fucked up old guy we elected.
Baud
It seems like a lot of right wingers have been insulting Catholics lately.
Jay
@Old School:
I thought you were alive then
It’s an old trope amongst Democratic bloggers. Everything bad that happened in the World after 2005 was blamed on the “Black Sox Curse”.
SiubhanDuinne
@raven:
Whenever I meet someone who asks “Where are you from?,” I always say “Chicago.” I only get into the West Suburban-Oak Park stuff if they indicate they want to drill down.
Moondoggus
@BC in Illinois: I guess they’re finally over this whole Martin Luther thing?
trollhattan
@Baud:
From their lips to Alito’s ears.
Anne Laurie
Downside of every close-knit community: Ya gotta protect yer own!
trollhattan
@Moondoggus:
“Get outta here and take your 95 feces with you!”
[whisper whisper]
“I’m being told they’re Reese’s. You can leave those, just leave.”
JML
Interesting choice. I’ll be very curious to see what the relevance is of the choice of papal name; it’s almost always a signal of something.
While I’m unwilling to let anyone off the hook for any participation in the colossal and disgusting sexual abuse perpetuated by Catholic clergy and covered up by far too many…the abuse was so pervasive that it’s sadly hard for someone of his age and standing to not be touched by it in some fashion. My hope is that he’s learned and will defrock abusers with speed and spend them off to be tried for their crimes.
If US catholics are big mad, hopefully it means he’s on a path more akin to Francis, who while imperfect did much good in turning a large and frequently reactionary institution with tremendous influence towards a better path for the world. It seems clear that Francis purged out enough of the old reactionaries in the Cardinals to gain a successor who wouldn’t immediately turn around and undo all his work?
And listen, any Pope that scolds the pathetic JD Vance must have something going for him, right?
BC in Illinois
@Baud:
Mike Luckovich has a cartoon of MAGA supporters mobbing St. Peter’s Square with “Stop the Steal” signs.
sab
@Baud: Cannot wait until next year when I meet our rwnj Catholics at work in our Lutheran owned firm.
Francis wasn’t a fluke. He was the future. Back to Vatican Two which was the future until JPII and Ratz stalled it. Onward, slowly
ETA Isn’t that how Catholics do it?
prostratedragon
@jonas: Now see, this is the history they should teach us.
Anne Laurie
My dad said the KKK burned crosses on his Creole second cousins’ lawns — postWWII, when returning vets ‘got uppity’,
prostratedragon
@trollhattan:
https://bsky.app/profile/thebhp.bsky.social/post/3loodgnafxc2w
Old School
@Jay: Thanks. I don’t recall that at all.
Maybe I didn’t spend as much time online then.
sab
@prostratedragon: Nobody learns History until college. Before that it is all just governmental propaganda.
FastEdD
As much as I yearn for divine intervention for the Bears, what smacks my gob is that I am now older than the Pope. Get off my lawn!
UncleEbeneezer
Speaking of Catholics…
Biden nails it, and shows not even the slightest trace of “cognitive decline”…
Baud
@sab:
Dark sarcasm in the classroom.
Steve LaBonne
Never trust anyone with a French surname.sab
@Baud: Dark sarcasm, but in my experience it is just truth.
sab
@Steve LaBonne: How can you tell Canadian from just French? Speaking for a friend.
Steve LaBonne
@sab: Maple syrup consumption. (Being partly of Québecois descent- the part that isn’t Irish- I love the stuff but I’m trying to watch my blood sugar. I also like poutine, but ditto.)
sab
@Steve LaBonne: Very sorry you can’t come to meetup in Columbus.
If we organized one in NE Ohio (us organizing anything makes me laugh) next Fall would you be interested?
Same question to Prof. Bigfoot.
Steve LaBonne
@sab: Quite possibly.
trollhattan
@sab:
For the French, it’s cleared up in the first spoken sentence.
eclare
@Baud:
Teacher, leave them kids alone.
Jay
@Anne Laurie:
@JML:
The abuse accusations are pretty thin.
In the first case, (Chicago) he ordered an accused Priest into “no contact” with the public, moved him into a different Church residence where he would have no contact with the public, made him wear an ankle monitor, until the investigation, (Church and criminal) was completed.
In the second case, (Peru), he opened an investigation into the sexual abuse of 3 women, but it went no where. I would guess that it was because the Catholic Church in Peru and Peruvian Police were, not interested, partially because the Claimants were Indigenous women.
Steve LaBonne
@trollhattan: Tabernak!
sab
@Steve LaBonne: What does maple syrup do to your accent?
My baby sister married a guy (Boston Irish dad, Acadian mom.) Her accent is better than his but he is deeply Quebecois in his heart.
ETA But always in the fictional way we are looking at our roots. Me too for Ireland and Scotland (and to a man my Scots anncestors married Swiss girls.)
Ken B
I heard a commenter make the observation that her first thought on hearing the new Pope’s name was to think of Leo XIII.
She added that she had another thought about an hour later. Francis chose his name to honor Saint Francis. Saint Francis’ best friend was a guy named Leo. They’re buried side by side.
For what it’s worth.
Edited slightly for clarity.
prostratedragon
@SiubhanDuinne: I’ve heard people from Quincy do that, so by comparison you’re entitled. To add, when the term “Chicagoland” came into use, it seemed to refer to some area that might have stopped at the Rockies.
Jacel
@wjca: It’s a universal church, but not to be confused with the Universal Life Church and its mail-order ordinations.
NotMax
Leo?
We’ve seen two John Pauls but not yet a single George Ringo.
Oh well, c’est la vie.
//
Steve LaBonne
@sab: Montréal is the only place in Québec I have been to (multiple times) and I would move there next week if I could.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@BC in Illinois:
Another vision would be the Swiss guard running their halberds thru a few MAGAts.
Omnes Omnibus
@sab: I’ll go ahead and disagree with that. I had American history teachers talking about the racism at the center of Social Darwinism. Of course things like that may have been why my high school became an International Baccalaureate diploma program school. But do go on…
trollhattan
@Steve LaBonne:
@sab:
Hilarious French spy comedy A Very Secret Service set in 1960 has a pair of Quebec independentists show up at the agency looking for help. The French can scarcely understand them and one quips “They understand French and yet do not speak it.”
Our French exchange student when the subject of Quebecois came up, would say, “Oooocch, chick-chick-chick” while covering her ears.
MagdaInBlack
@raven: Born at Mercy, grew up in Dolton. Good enough for me
trollhattan
@NotMax: Sadly explains why the Vatican still lacks rhythm.
Omnes Omnibus
@SiubhanDuinne: Chicago for the general public. Specifics only if someone will know what they mean.
prostratedragon
@sab: Too true, though being a Black girl in the late 60s helped a bit with U.S. history, despite the resources being far thinner than now.
Steve LaBonne
@Omnes Omnibus: I do “Cleveland area” because nobody has heard of Medina. (Which is actually closer to Akron but, you know, Akron.)
Ihop
Okey doke, but as a born-baptized–raised-educated-groomed but failed because eww-and now so lapsed I’m fucking done-roman catholic and going by their logic, if jd Vance wasn’t born to two catholic parents born in this country then he fucking ain’t.
Off to gitmo for that shitbird as fast as lightning.
trollhattan
@Ihop: I find your proposal persuasive.
Mai Naem mobile
I don’t know much about Catholicism. I did take a world religion class in college that covered liberation theology. I am assuming Pope Leo was influenced at least a little by liberation theology. That and picking the name Leo gives me a lot of hope for this new pope.
Trivia Man
@zhena gogolia: I solve the confusion by calling him Shady Vance
HopefullyNotcassandra
@sab: somewhere Mel Gibson has now covered himself in sackcloth and ashes.
DanB
I’ve heard of Medina.
As in raised in Wadsworth, Medina county.
DanB
@DanB: And when I tell people I was raised in Ohio they say, where there’s lots of corn. And I say, factories. You’re thinking of Iowa. Not sure how many factories are left.
scav
Ok, I’ve had to go work for 3+ hours. How many comments have there been about deep-dish communion wafers? I’m counting on you guys. (now I’m off to count them.)
dm
@DanB: Iowans get “where I come from, we pronounce that ‘O-HI-O’”.
Steve LaBonne
@DanB: So you hate Medina, like all true blue Wadsworthians? ;)
West of the Rockies
@Baud:
If Trump wants to trash the Pope and Catholics in general, great. See what that does to his favorability and future GOP prospects.
Matt McIrvin
@sab: My daughter’s AP US History teacher seems to have been a good sort–trying his best to push against that sort of thing and drive the students to use multiple primary sources and weigh different interpretations. The people currently in charge of the US do not like people like him.
sab
@NotMax: Continuous gripe from my Catholic husband after twenty three years of marriage. I always say “Ask the cardinals who poisoned the first John Paul.”
Aussie Sheila
@jonas:
The stacking of the College of Cardinals by Francis was the most effective Branch stack I’ve ever seen. Makes the Australian Labor Party look like amateurs.
Excellent work by Francis.
Omnes Omnibus
Chicago pope, huh?
zhena gogolia
@West of the Rockies: I can’t imagine a lot of Catholics weren’t offended by that picture of him dressed as the Pope.
prostratedragon
@scav:
Well, there’s this from the Onion;
sab
@Omnes Omnibus: IB was after my time. I will ask my niece.
sab
@Steve LaBonne: Medina has a square. Akron has a university and a city.
Medina drivers coming off of 71 are exceptionally nuts.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Another good one from Frank Conniff:
Weird. Rome has an American Pope and America has a Russian President.
https://x.com/FrankConniff/status/1920606505985884346
Aussie Sheila
@zhena gogolia:
I’m not Catholic, I’m a natural born atheist, and I was offended. On behalf of people to whom the Pope is one of the symbols of their faith.
Truly, there has never been a more vulgar, demented arsehole occupying the post of President, ever. The only thing to be said for the debacle is that he is giving fascism a bad name.
Again.
Let’s hope the death toll from this latest ‘outing’ is significantly less this time round.
owlbrick
@zhena gogolia: Some of them are just now realizing that he may in fact be the literal antichrist, and that their religion has spent the last two thousand years exhorting them to stand against him.
lowtechcyclist
@Bill Arnold:
Having spent next to no time in Chicago (and even that was >40 years ago), I have no idea what ‘Tavern Style’ is. But I’d love to see a deep-dish Eucharist; it’s an abomination to call those paper-thin discs that they usually give you along with the wine ‘bread.’
Jay
@Aussie Sheila:
More than a few people had some fun with it,
https://mockpaperscissors.com/2025/05/08/smoke-over-the-vatican/
lowtechcyclist
Gotta say, I’m enjoying the MAGAt and RWNJ tears over the new Pope. Woke Marxist Pope FTW!
trollhattan
@HopefullyNotcassandra:
Heh. Gibson’s old man is the reason I know about Catholics who reject Vatican II and no pope since then.
Layer8Problem
@trollhattan: “Hilarious French spy comedy A Very Secret Service . . . “
I’ve seen that, the very scene! Those two show up a bunch of episodes later, having gotten insurgency tips elsewhere . . . . And the lockdown under Code Mole, when they have been penetrated, hysterical.
If anyone’s looking for the series, in France it’s Au service de la France.
Aussie Sheila
@Jay:
Heh! I hope it does the rounds.
Disgusting creature that he is.
Steve in the ATL
I assume that in the interest of fairness there will be a post for the Episcopalians on B-J to discuss the doings of the Archbishop of Canterbury?
zhena gogolia
@Aussie Sheila: Agree.
Elizabelle
Relieved about Pope Leo. Yay, Francis.
The Felon may be saddened that he does not get to be “POTUS” for life, but, honestly, every day has felt like a week since January.
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
No kidding.
trollhattan
@Layer8Problem:
Glad I’m not an audience on one. Such a fun show, was gutted they only did two seasons.
divF
@Hildebrand: The senior clergy in the US are a mixed bag, thanks to Francis. You have Archbishops like Cardinal Dolan (NY) and Archbishop Cordileone (San Francisco), who predate Francis, and are real doctrinaire jerks. But then you have Cardinals McElroy (DC) and Tobin (Newark), who are Francis appointees and are much more “pastoral” (i.e. minister to the poors, the POCs, and the gays). Cordileone is a real piece of work, with his hostility to the gay community in SF. It was a continuing snub that Francis never elevated him to Cardinal, especially after McElroy was made a Cardinal when the latter was still the Bishop of San Diego, a lower-ranking position than Archbishop, plus McElroy had previously been Cordileone’s suffragan bishop (i.e. his deputy).
Tobin is also a real salt-of-the-earth guy – the NY Times ran a piece on him after he had been appointed as Archbishop of Newark, which talked about him being a member of a group of older-guy free weight lifters at a local gym. For a long time, they had had no idea he was an Archbishop, rather than just a 60-something who could deadlift north of 225 lbs.
Aussie Sheila
@Steve in the ATL:
Well there might be if the Church of England could ever get around to appointing a new one. Talk about useless.
The Catholic Church has moved admirably to ensure a swift and smooth succession. Always a sign of a well oiled Machine.
Jay
https://mockpaperscissors.com/2025/05/08/some-fries-with-your-stupid-272/
Aussie Sheila
@Jay:
Christ almighty he’s stupid. It’s simply ineffable at this point.
West of the Rockies
Pirro as US attorney in DC?!? Would the old drunk even want it?
artem1s
@Jay:
remember what happened the last time the Cubs won?
DanB
@Steve LaBonne: I don’t have feelings about Medina. The arch rivals for Wadsworth football were Wooster and Rittman. Of course I have queasy feelings about Ohio since it’s where I got kicked out of school for being gay and where I was in the closet for years.
JoyceH
@lowtechcyclist: when the MAGA evangelicals hear a guy preaching Christianity and call it “woke Marxism”, I start to wonder what they’re hearing from their own pulpits.
Jay
Guy who killed the last Pope is upset the New Pope doesn’t like him.
WaterGirl
@Jay: It feels like poetic justice to me.
JoyceH
BTW, has anyone here seen the Sistine Chapel in real life? I saw it last year on my Italy tour. And man, after going through the Vatican museum, my feet appreciated being able to sit on a bench and just stare upward for a while. But after we left, my friend Martha said it was bigger than she thought it was, whereas I thought it was smaller than I expected it to be. So – just curious what others thought.
Captain C
@JoyceH: If you have cable there’s probably a triple digit numbered channel on which you can find out, if you don’t mind your ears and brain being quickly curdled.
Steve in the ATL
@SiubhanDuinne:
You left there before I was born ]. Smart move!
Steve in the ATL
@Jay: he’s killed only one pope. Got a long way to go to beat the Borgias.
DanB
@JoyceH: I thought it smaller than expected and since it was before the restoration, darker than expected.
St. Peter’s seemed much larger than expected.
satby
Bill Gates is speeding up the work of his foundation so that it uses up its endowment and the rest of his personal fortune over the next 20 years, in response to the Muskrats gutting USAID:
Ohio Mom
@FastEdD: That was my first reaction too. Popes are always very old men. If I am older than the pope, even by just a year, I must be very old. Yikes.
I’m Jewish so this isn’t my circus at all, still I’m heartened by the idea he scolded JD. Yasher Koach, Leo! (Rough translation from the Hebrew: Congrats and keep up the good work!)
Steve LaBonne
@DanB: I (a native New Yorker) have extremely mixed feelings, no let’s be honest pretty negative feelings, about Ohio where I am now marooned for the rest of my life. So it goes. At least I have the Cleveland Orchestra and the Cleveland Museum of Art to console me.
sab
@Steve LaBonne: Those aren’t nothing.
Steve LaBonne
@sab: Indeed not. Actually I love Cleveland. Such an underrated city. If only it were in a civilized state.
Steve in the ATL
@satby:
Unlike, you know, almost everything he did in his professional career.
Ohio Mom
@sab: I have instigated two meet-ups, one years ago when SteveInWherever was passing through Cincinnati, and the upcoming one. The tricky part is identifying the location. This time I got smart and unloaded that on Columbus Queen (to whom I am very thankful).
DanB
@Steve LaBonne: And Oberlin. We went to the May Show at the Cleveland Art Institute (its name at the time). It was fantastic, very modern.
Steve LaBonne
@Steve in the ATL: Well, Carnegie was a right bastard too. But compared to the likes of the Koch brothers, Thiel, and Musk, he was a fucking saint.
wenchacha
@BC in Illinois: Ha! As a lapsed Lutheran, I appreciate that.
sab
@Steve LaBonne: If we had a NE Ohio meetup
@sab: I have lived other places that barely had an art museum, and very few places with an orchestra like Cleveland’s.
Ohio Mom
@Omnes Omnibus: That was also before statewide standardized testing, which homogenized curriculum. I was pretty aghast at all of Ohio Son’s social studies, history and economics lessons all through his public school career.
lowtechcyclist
@NotMax:
And there was a Pope named Lando but not one named Luke, Han, or Obi-Wan.
wenchacha
@HopefullyNotcassandra: Let the self- flaggelations begin
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@DanB:
We were there one xmas eve back in the early 90s. Watched/listened to a girl’s choir sing in the Pantheon…heaven on earth.
Then schlepped over to the Vatican watched people go into St Peters…and go into St Peters…and go into St Peters. It has an infinite capacity of people it seemed. So yeah, it’s ginourmous.
Steve in the ATL
@Steve LaBonne: I’ve been boycotting Cleveland since the Greenhouse Tavern.
Once had a great meal there, even though downtown was flooded with teenaged hookers. I thought it was a teenaged hookers convention, but at 8 pm they all vanished. Turns out it was just teen and tween girls there for a Lady Gaga concert. I’ll bet there is still glitter all over the area; it has a longer half-life than bismuth-209 (shout out to the chemistry nerds on B-J!).
MagdaInBlack
@Omnes Omnibus: We used the same history book for the 2 years of U.S History we were required to take, used the same book each year, started at the beginning and never made it to the New Deal.
No other history was offered. So….glad you had better options.
Northern Illinois farm town h.s.
satby
@Steve in the ATL: better late than never.
Except at BJ, where you are damned for all time for whatever you did 30 years ago.
wjca
See what that does to his Supreme Court majority.
One of André Leon Talley's Fifty Pieces of Monogrammed Louis Vuitton Luggage
That’s the Chicago way.
Steve LaBonne
@Steve in the ATL: I still have bad memories of glitter getting all over my clothes when I washed them with my preteen daughter’s.
sab
@Steve in the ATL: We used to watch films of him (Archbishop of Cantebury) in Episcopal confirmation class in 1965. My mom would say ” Aren’t you supposed to be learning your catechism instead?”
Steve in the ATL
@wjca: Catholics were not allowed on the Court for a long time, and the first one was the infamous Roger Taney. So, today’s jerks are just following his lead, marking the first time they have actually followed precedent.
sab
@Steve LaBonne: My stepson used to bleach his bluejeans in the washer and not warn us or clear out the bleach. Ruined lots of my good work clothes.
Darkrose
@jackmac: Someone on Bluesky was wondering what the Latin for “Sell the team!” is.
sab
@Steve in the ATL: Roger Taney was Catholic! That explains a lot ( /// not serious… but my mom would have been.)
Steve in the ATL
@Steve LaBonne: rookie mistake!
@sab: “No, mom, Henry VIII spared us from that!”
Steve in the ATL
@sab: but your tennis whites looked great!
Or was my club the only one that still required that?
sab
@Steve in the ATL: He spared us the Pope. He didn’t spare us learning the catechism or all the creeds. Why do we have two creeds which are different? But both are our creeds? Blame the Catholics.
sab
@Steve in the ATL: No they all did. Some rich Ford died from blood poisoning from dark socks, so whites it was ever after.
HopefullyNotcassandra
@trollhattan: that is the reason I know too
artem1s
@JoyceH: Saw it when I was in college. I spent a lot of time in churches that summer so the size seemed right for a chapel as opposed to a cathedral. What I wasn’t prepared for was the whole thing altogether. The side walls are extraordinary examples of fresco painting all on their own. The chapel art was famous before Michelangelo’s ceiling. This was in 1986 and they were in the process of cleaning the Perugino walls. They wouldn’t get to the ceiling for another couple years. I haven’t been there since. But even covered with 500 years of soot and wax it was still magnificent.
Matt McIrvin
@West of the Rockies: Aren’t the hardcore right-wing Catholics all close to sedevacantists at this point? They haven’t respected a Pope since Joey Palpatine.
Miss Bianca
@JoyceH: @artem1s: Meee! But it was 35 years ago, so I missed the fabulous restoration of the Michelangelo frescoes.
Matt McIrvin
(I can’t figure out who this new guy looks like. John Paul II could have been played by Robin Williams in the biopic, Benedict XVI was of course Ian McDiarmid as Palpatine, and Francis was an aged Jonathan Pryce. But Leo here, I’m not sure.)
prostratedragon
@Steve LaBonne:
Cleveland Orchestra
Damn fine band!
jimmirabob
Chicago peoples. Can you let us know the first shop to start selling Chicago Style Pope Dogs? Of course, always with mustard, never ketchup.
I could use the motivation to head up for a weekend.
prostratedragon
@jimmirabob: Too bad he didn’t continue the name Francis, eh?
jackmac
@Darkrose: Google translate says “Sell The Team” in Latin is: “Vende turmam“
Trivia Man
@Miss Bianca: I feel fortunate. I saw it ;the first time) halfway through restoration*. Half of the ceiling was dingy, half was brilliant colors. IMHO best of both worlds.
Also saw the Bronze Doors in florence outside in the original spot. I understand they replaced either replicas and the originals are now indoors.
*possibly a false memory, off to verify with research
RevRick
Waves hand from the back of the room. Hey, has anybody ever heard of the Rev. Dr. Karen Georgia A. Thompson, the first woman and first woman of African descent to serve as General Minister and President of the United Church of Christ?
No?
Of course not.
Three quarters of a million are a rounding error compared to 1.4 billion. But when it comes to shaping culture, the UCC has punched above its weight class.
Trivia Man
First Pope controversy!! Wrigley put a brag on their sign… which his brother promptly refuted.
He is definitely a Sox fan, but MOM is a Cubs fan.” I bet she told the news Cubs assuming he would be too polite to call his own mother a liar.
Bonus fact: he Wordles every day
They Call Me Noni
@JoyceH: I found it smaller than I expected but it was surreal to actually be in that space. I think all the murals make the space feel crowded, like the walls are closing in.
Matt McIrvin
@RevRick The UCC is awesome–my wife’s family used to be members and if someone forced me to pick a religious denomination, well, the Unitarians are probably (un-)doctrinally more my speed but the UCC is up there.
schrodingers_cat
@Trivia Man: So do I.
Steve LaBonne
@Matt McIrvin: And our UUA President is Rev. Sofia Betancourt, a Black Latina who is all kinds of awesome.
dnfree
@raven: He is from a suburb closer to Chicago, and “grittier” than some.
Trivia Man
Sobering to go up in St Peters, look WAY DOWN at the top of the Throne… and remember the Throne is more than 30 meters tall
Steve in the ATL
@dnfree: I’m from Evanston, which is very close to the city. I’m going to add “gritty” to my LinkedIn profile!
Sister Golden Bear
@BC in Illinois:
Trump still can be Pope if Mike Pence has the courage to do the right thing.
rikyrah
He has Louisiana CREOLE roots.
And, Chicago Theological Union is in Hyde Park
Larue Fran
@zhena gogolia:
@wjca:
@wjca: 💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙
Spc
@sab: a few decades outside the US – the morst important parts of his priesthood – but not most of his life.
Gloria DryGarden
@zhena gogolia: GD Vance
gd, as in goddamn