Well, we have a new pope. Let's look at some of his background, why he might have picked the name Leo, a name with a lot of history, and look at some of his opening papal remarks. Hey guys, I'm Father David Mos.
I'm a Catholic priest. If you enjoy these types of videos, make sure you subscribe so you don't miss out on future content. So, only a few votes into the conclave.
The cardinals were able to make a decision. The average conclave goes about 3 days, so this was a little bit less than that. And it's a name that nobody really saw coming.
I mean, if you looked at like the news or even like the betting odds, I uh I was kind of surprised to learn that you can't actually bet on a paper election in the US. Not that I was looking into it. I was not trying to make paper bets, but I saw that somewhere and uh you you could place bets outside the US, but not in Houston.
But even the betting odds, but those guys tend to know a lot about things. Um they were way off on this. No one really saw this name coming.
And I think that's significant because this, you know, a paper election is not like the Super Bowl. It's not like a presidential election. This is a work of of the spirit in these men, a very small group of men voting uh in secrecy.
So, it's kind of cool that it ended up being somebody that that no one saw coming. It was Cardinal Robert Francis Pvost. He was born in Chicago.
I'll be honest, this is not a name I was super familiar with and maybe rightly so because he uh he's done most of his ministry outside of the US. So, he uh was born into a Catholic family. I've heard that his brothers all kind of thought he would be a priest.
that's really what he wanted to do. One of his brothers said that he was playing in the street one day and one of the the neighbors, one of the moms said, "Hey, I I think you're going to be the pope one day. " And I I'm sure that's been said many times to many people, but it's kind of cool that in his case it ended up coming true.
He actually is a religious priest. He joined the order of St. Augustine.
Not a super popular religious community here in the United States, but those religious vows I'm sure I'm sure have informed a lot of the way he's lived out his uh his priesthood. He was a parish priest for a while, which I thought was cool. You know, I'm a parish priest myself, and it's cool to hear that the pope knows what it's like to be in a parish, to be with the people, to go through the baptisms and the weddings and the funerals and the confessions and the anointings and all those things, and to know what that life looks like as he seeks to lead us in this life as well.
He did a lot of ministry out in Peru, actually has dual citizenship both in Peru and in the United States. I'm sure a lot of that work with uh that missionary work and that work with the poor is going to inform his papacy. in a lot of ways.
I thought it was, you know, it was interesting. I I announced, you know, yesterday I put online first American pope and a lot of people were saying, well, the first North American pope, Pope Francis, you know, actually was from the Americas. And of course, you know, when we talk about like our lady of Guadalupe, she's the patronist of the Americas.
We say that in the church a lot of times. Yes, that includes Central, South, North America for sure. But I will say in my defense, when you Google the word American, it says a native of the United States.
So that is like the top definition. So you can use it both ways. In this case we mean it like this that he is a United States citizen was born here in the United States.
Uh but very cultured man fluent in English, Spanish, Italian, French and Portuguese and apparently can read some other language as well. Really really impressive and very cool that he's able to communicate in all those different ways. You kind of saw that when he was elected.
He spoke some Italian. This morning his homaly spoke some uh spoke some English. kind of reminiscent maybe of John Paul II who just knew a slew of different languages when he was a bishop his episcopal motto so you become a bishop you get a uh to choose like a motto for your episcopacy and his was in the one Christ we are one love that clear emphasis there on unity and gosh in the world right now unity is something that we definitely could use I feel like we're so divided in so many different areas uh in the country even within religious circles we can be so divided and Jesus very clearly in scripture prays for unity among his body when we talk about body in Christ when there's not a unity in a body that body is in bad shape and so I love that that's that's clearly something that's that's important for him so then he was made cardinal and actually wasn't cardinal for that long I I think just under about two two or three years he was cardinal is what I read kind of extraordinary um to go from being the cardinal to being the pope that quickly he's pretty young so he's uh I I think late60s and so he will be uh a pope for presumably God willing a very long time most of my priesthood.
This will be my this will be my pope you know I imagine. So um kind of interesting that they that they elected somebody younger and he specific job the last couple of years at the Vatican has been to basically be the one who is vetting potential bishops. So worldwide there there needs to be bishops who are leading churches and the Vatican has a whole process for that.
Obviously, the pope himself can't be looking at every individual candidate in that first wave. So, it makes sense that he has somebody kind of helping to filter through some of those things to give him advice. And this is what he was doing.
That seems to have informed the decision of the cardinals cuz because of his position, he understood the global um dynamic, what the situation was. He was familiar with the various churches and different nations and clearly was pretty wellliked um in that role. Another word on being the first American pope, if you allow me to say that.
Uh, Bishop uh, Baron said, I saw him in an interview before and somebody said, "What about an American? " He said, "Oh, that'd be fine. " He said, "I don't I just don't think that would happen at all.
" Because he specifically said, "Because America has such an influence in other areas when it comes to um the economy, when it comes to culture, like even the movie and music industry so often is very affected by United States and uh and even like the military. We have very strong military. all these different things that the United States influences.
He thought the cardinals aren't probably going to put an American pope to also influence the church as well. But I think it's worth saying here that of the American cardinals, I've heard it's kind of like he's sort of the least American, if you can say that, because he spent so much of his time outside of the United States and again dual citizenship uh in Peru. The name, love the name, he picked the name Pope Leo I 14th.
It was significant that you know John Paul II picked the second of something because that his predecessor had a short papacy. Benedict of course picked the 16th. Um and then Pope Francis was the first.
He was the first Francis. And so interesting that Pope Leo has kind of gone back to a longer lineage and and chosen to be the 14th Leo. I mentioned my video yesterday that the the name Leo means lion.
In fact, in Spanish, Leon translates directly to to lion. And I love the image of the pope being a lion. a figure that is calm but is strong and is willing to defend the truth.
So 13 previous popes with the name Leo. The first pope Leo um was in the fifth century and he's known as Leo the Great and he was pivotal in defining christoologgical doctrine and who Jesus was and strengthening the authority actually of the papacy. He actually had a really persuasive encounter with Attilla the Hun uh urging the invader to spare Rome which remains a testament to uh his ability to work with different people in different situations.
So maybe a little bit of that in in Pope Leo being willing to be that instrument uh of peace clarifying things in the world as Leo the Great did. And then the previous Leo the 13th is known for his encyclical rarum navarum which he wrote in the late 19th century which talked about economic issues that were involved in the industrial revolution things like that. He really focused a lot on the condition of the working class, the marginalized um advocating for fair wages, safe working conditions and even like to unionize for workers.
He also emphasized like the dignity of work, the dignity of workers, social harmony, justice, th those kinds of things. And so it'll be interesting to kind of see how that might play out for uh Pope Leo the 14th that uh maybe that that that emphasis on the dignity of the person might continue to be, you know, a staple in his papacy. I also thought this was kind of interesting.
I read that for the previous Leo, Leo the 13th, he uh put out 11 encyclicals on the rosary, which is the most any pope has put out on the rosary. It actually got him the affectionate title the rosary pope cuz he was clearly just so big on it. I I noticed in the homaly this morning that Pope Leo the 14th gave with the cardinals in the 16 chapel, he closed by speaking about Mary as the mother of the church.
So, I wonder if that's other reason he picked the name that he appreciated the rosary pope's uh emphasis on Mary and devotion. Also, it was pointed out that Leo the 13th composed the St. Michael prayer, which I'm sure you've heard.
St. Michael the Archangel defend us in battle. A really strong prayer, especially for spiritual warfare.
And yesterday was actually the feast of the apparition of St. Michael. So, providence or maybe informing his decision to the name, I don't know.
But just really cool how those different things have come together. You know, yesterday he offered he spoke a lot about peace in his initial remarks, the peace of Christ, especially the peace of Christ risen from the dead. Bishop Baron talked about how he wanted a pope who preached the resurrection of Jesus.
And so the fact that he mentioned the resurrection I thought was kind of cool in his opening statement. And again, an emphasis emphasis on peace, which would make sense with Leo the Great, who focused so much on making sure we were living that unity that the Lord wants uh for his church. At his homaly this morning at the sisting chapel, he spoke about reaching out to those areas where people think belief in Jesus is absurd.
I thought that was very interesting to say that he emphasized that the faith to have faith is not absurd. It's not unreasonable. It's not illogical.
that we need to reach out especially to those places where people are not open to that. So very focused on missionary outreach. I love that and that's why I do social media.
That's why I'm making this video is because I think we need to be reaching out, evangelizing more, being missionaries to the world in every way that we possibly can through every medium. And so it's cool that he uh emphasized that missionary outreach. I mentioned the interview with his brother.
Um imagine having a brother who's the pope. I mean, come on. That is absolutely insane.
He said he did not see this coming at all. But he said last time his his brother, now Pope Leo the 14th, was home. They were playing Words with Friends with each other um and some kind of Scrabble type game and just hanging out and talking.
And he said he always joked with his brother, you know, make sure you get your red socks, you know, cuz he's a he's a what was it? Cardinal. So kind of humanizing to be hearing from his family, you know, and uh to kind of be hearing about his heart and also learned that that he loves to tennis.
Doesn't get to play as much these days, obviously, and will probably be able to play even less now he's the pope. But, you know, overall, I just I love being Catholic these last couple of days. Um it just kind of refreshes that in a lot of ways that we have these traditions and these ceremonies and these moments of unity that are unifying where frankly right now like the the world is watching and how beautiful that we have you know pope means it comes from the word papa it means father and how beautiful that we have a father and that for so many that are lost in the world this Sunday is good shepherd Sunday for us here at the parish and how beautiful that the church has has a shepherd um and and yeah like I said just love being Catholic.
Uh my nieces and my nephews, you might have seen them in some videos yesterday, were saying, "Amu's popping. My bamu's popping. " They were all so excited.
And it's beautiful that they had that experience. Just the richness of the Catholic faith. Such a deeply deeply beautiful thing that I'm just so so grateful to uh to be a part of.
So, we will continue to be praying for our new pope, Leo. I said mass uh yesterday. I'm about to say mass in a few minutes here.
And uh just kind of cool, you know, in the eucharistic prayer to say and Leo our pope. You know, for a while we we left that part out of the prayers because we didn't have a pope. So really beautiful to bring that back that we have a father again, a spiritual father for the church.
So we'll be praying for him. Um praying for what the Holy Spirit doing in the church and we'll see you guys next time. God bless.
