Today is the fourth Sunday of Easter, Good Shepherd Sunday. It is also Mother’s Day.
I’m sure you were all as surprised as I was to see an American elected pope. Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost is our new Pope Leo XIV. Prevost is from Chicago and attended high school in Holland Michigan at an Augustinian boarding school. Connie and I have been going to Holland on vacation for years but hadn’t heard of the school. It turns out it was closed in 1977. The new pope also attended Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. I audited a couple of courses at CTU a number of years ago.
While the USA, and especially Chicago, claim the new pope, he spent a considerable amount of time in Peru, and, in fact, is a citizen of that country. He has also lived in Italy for a number of years. Yes, he’s American, but in some ways he’s a citizen of the world. For a man who is now required to deal with people from every culture around the world his background seems well suited to that task.
I think he has a great background that will serve the worldwide Church well. He’s somewhat conservative/orthodox but has a great deal of pastoral care about him according to those who know him well. I expect him to be an excellent pope.
At our level of the Church we might think it makes little practical difference who is pope but I disagree with that. Leaders don’t have to be local, and in a world that seems to be falling apart in almost every direction we look, having someone to lead our Church who has strong morals and a firm, but pastoral, touch, seems to me to be a really good thing. Like John XXIII said by calling the Church to the second Vatican Council, we need to engage with the culture, not turn inward upon ourselves even though we’re disgusted by much of what we see around us. As I write this on Saturday morning I’m encouraged by what I see in Pope Leo XIV. We are in a Jubilee Year of Hope so let’s be hopeful.
It isn’t lost on me, either, that today is Good Shepherd Sunday. Pope Leo seems to have a confidence about him that should encourage all of us to be good shepherds, whatever our role may be in the Church. Jesus is the Good Shepherd but we are all called to follow Him by living out the faith of the Church and then taking that faith out to the world, a world that surely needs to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ.
I hope you’ll join me in praying for Pope Leo XIV and also to be sure you’re witnessing to the faith to others. Your non-Catholic friends may well have questions about what’s happening in our Church. This is a great time to show the joy that comes from living life in Christ, the Good Shepherd.
Finally, a big thank you to all the mothers reading these words. You make more difference in our world than you sometimes realize. Your holy example has such an effect on your children, though they may not always show it. Over time that example has the potential to make a huge difference. Just read the life of our new pope and see how his mother, and father as well I’m sure, influenced young Robert Prevost.
That’s it for now. Thanks for reading.
I hope you have a great week.
Peace, Bob
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