Announcement prompts raucous celebration and delight among 50,000 pilgrims and tourists in St Peter’s Square

I’m rather surprised no one has posted pope news yet. So here you go. His past writings suggest a liberal bent, but popes are wont to surprise.

Robert Francis Prevost has become the first clergyman from the United States to lead the Roman Catholic church, ending the Vatican’s longstanding opposition to the idea of a US pontiff.

The 69-year-old from Chicago has taken the papal name Pope Leo XIV, a senior cardinal announced from the central balcony of St Peter’s Basilica on Thursday evening.

The announcement, which followed white smoke billowing from the chimney above the Sistine Chapel, prompted raucous celebration and delight among the 50,000 pilgrims and tourists in St Peter’s Square.

I’ll respectfully avoid the reference to guys from Chicago in Star Trek: Picard.

  • LandedGentry@lemmy.zipEnglish
    0·
    1 day ago

    Notice I didn’t say I had any ambitions of some major changes or overhauls. We honestly know very little about this guy at this stage anyway, so any claims like that would be silly on several levels. But if we had gotten a complete shit head regressive bigot you can bet they’d more easily be able to steer into it

    The US Catholic Church is in turmoil, more than many realize. When I heard he was an American* I actually was very nervous. Last year an archbishop from Boston was excommunicated, not removed from his post actually excommunicated, for schism. Wasn’t accepting the pope’s legitimacy. It’s getting weird here. Trumpism is popular and is diametrically opposed to the (in the US sadly languishing) social justice mission of the Catholic Church. It’s hard to square “I hate woke” with “everyone has human dignity.”

    *sort of