In the election of Pope Leo XIV, a call for Americans to be great again

Los Angeles Times ^ | May 10, 2025 3 AM PT | Gustavo Arellano

[E. Pluribus Unum]

“May peace be with you.”

That was the first sentence uttered by Pope Leo XIV after he was introduced Thursday as the new leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics. From the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, the first American pontiff then reminded the audience that those were also the first words Jesus spoke after His resurrection.

“This is the peace of the risen Christ,” the man born Robert Francis Prevost continued, “an unarmed and disarming peace, humble and persevering.”

My eyes and heart welled with pride as I listened to his short speech — as a Catholic, yes, but especially as an American.

Next month will mark a decade since Donald Trump descended down a golden escalator at his namesake Manhattan tower to announce his 2016 presidential campaign and offer his own version of spiritual renewal. His MAGA gospel wasn’t based on the words of Jesus, but rather American exceptionalism at its worst: isolationism, jingoism, grievance, xenophobia and the idea that you should take care of yourself and screw everyone else.

Instead of finding salvation, Americans are more paranoid and divided than ever. We seek deliverance from our national malaise from anywhere and everywhere, to little avail. But in Pope Leo, we now have an American leader who can remind us and the world what the United States represents at its best.

His ancestry is multicultural — French, Italian, Black, Hispanic — and his maternal grandparents moved from New Orleans to Chicago. He went to school and church in Chicago’s blue-collar South Side, then attended Villanova University. The young Robert Prevost became a missionary in Peru for the Augustinians before going to Rome to head the religious order, which focuses on helping the marginalized of society.

He applied that life experience to his last role before becoming pope: helping the late Pope Francis...

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TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: popebob

[E. Pluribus Unum]

(Trump's) MAGA gospel wasn’t based on the words of Jesus, but rather American exceptionalism at its worst: isolationism, jingoism, grievance, xenophobia and the idea that you should take care of yourself and screw everyone else.

Señor Arellano seems to be describing himself.

[plain talk]

I guess we'll see how this Pope turns out.

[trebb]

If the LA Times is pimping for him - I have doubts about the viability of the Catholic Church to be a purveyor of the Good News of the Gospels - which is what they were supposed to be - teachers of the lessons and sacrifices Jesus provided....

[metmom]

Nobody needs a new pope for Americans to become great again.

It can happen without him.

[lewislynn]

In the election of Pope Leo XIV, a call for Americans to be great again

Providing we do it without AC, gas stoves, gas fired water heaters and border walls.