Preface: Everything about Robert Francis Prevost will be scrutinized....and every word that he says...and with good reason....but for now he kind of looks like a grown up Timmy....from Lassie....John Provost's Lassie!
I was baptized and raised and confirmed and married in the Catholic church....and attended Catholic schools through high school. Both paternal and maternal families to this day are Catholic. My mother had a St. Anthony statue by her bedside until maybe two years before she passed away in 2015. One day as I visited her....she was watching television.....I said hello and her response was....Special Dog....we have a bad pope. Something....I never knew what....bothered her about what the new Pope Francis was doing.
My great-grandfather was a protestant minister. He had two sons....one rebelled big time. He married a young Irish Roman Catholic girl....converted to Catholicism....and was a devoted parishioner....until the day he died.....always volunteering around the church. The character of Casper Wiskovitz in my novella that is linked to on this page....is modelled after my grandfather. I rebelled just as did my grandfather....and I was also converted probably at about the same age....thirty-two....only I wasn't converted to a religion.
I remember when Pope John XXIII was chosen. Everyone was excited....and then there was Pope Paul VI....and then John Paul I....and then the Polish Pope....John Paul II....who skied and spoke a whole lot of languages. We were excited again. I was out of the loop with Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis....the Jesuit. John Paul II was the first pope that we in America were familiar with his first name....Karol....but now....it's a whole new ballgame....no pun intended.
Unfortunately the great polarized split in America is still there with Pope Leo XIV....or Pope Bob....who we in America can call him....for everyone knew him as Father Bob. I read earlier in the day that he was a Cubs fan....and then I read that no....he was a White Sox fan! He may or may not ski....but he was a tennis player! And he also speaks a number of languages.
This is the first time in America where Catholics might be able to say....'I went to school with the Pope....or I bullied the pope....or the pope bullied me? He and I might have been at the 1964 World's Fair in New York at the same time! He graduated from Villanova in 1977....and I graduated from Pitt in 1976, Maybe he attended the same....Peace and Conflict Studies conference at Harvard that I did in....I'm guessing 1974? He would remember....I was too inebriated to recall anything.
My point here is that Italians were used to it....a local bishop becoming the Pope....to us it was always a foreigner....someone almost not really real. Someone saintly....not someone who watched Saturday Night Live and All In The Family. That's one thing that came to my mind today when I heard that there would be the first American pope. How will it affect Catholics who are already struggling with their church? Americans will not need to decipher the short speeches that were always given by a foreign pope....now they can listen to an hour-long interview....or maybe Joe Rogan will interview him....but more likely Anderson Cooper....but then again....Maybe Hannity?
