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·
    15 hours ago

    Let me preface this by saying that he is the pope of the Roman Catholic Church, an institution with a lot of rot that protected pedophiles for decades and plays hardball with investigations in many countries.

    That being said I saw some of his social media posts and he is definitely very outspoken about Trump/Vance, which signals to me that we could’ve probably done a lot worse. Especially among US papal candidates.

    • sanzky@beehaw.org
      0·
      4 hours ago

      theoretically the whole curia should obey the pope, but in reality it is a very large appartus that is very hard to steer, I doubt we’ll see meaningful changes. I remember the first years of Francis reign, there was a lot of shift and scandals but also a lot of pushback. Eventually things became quieter and back to ‘business as usual’. The same happened with Benedict, it was clear he quit due to his inability to steer the institution.

      I think that is the reason Francis made so many cardinals.

    • Pete Hahnloser@beehaw.orgOPEnglish
      0·
      12 hours ago

      Far be it for me to claim any knowledge about the inner workings of the Vatican. This said, far be it for me to cast aspersions, as popes can veer wildly off expectations.