I kinda like the new Pope.

[regnaD kciN]

7. The American Church has been at odds with the Papacy of FRANCIS...

…because the previous two traditionalist Popes spent over three decades trying to bring the “liberal” American church to heel, through appointing conservative bishops throughout the U.S., and promoting the most “successful” of those to higher and higher positions and appointing them to the College of Cardinals. Although we might not like to admit it, they largely succeeded. In part, they imposed litmus tests to make sure only obediently-traditionalist seminarians made it through to the priesthood, both to “lay down the law” to their congregations and to become future bishops themselves, so that the vicious circle would be self-sustaining. This is why we saw the spectacle, in the 2020 elections, of bishops in a number of diocese sending out pastoral letters to be read in all parishes commanding the faithful, under the threat of eternal damnation, to vote for “pro-life” Trump over their fellow Catholic Biden.

It’s why we’ve seen such a growth of “rad-trads,” especially among young priests, and why such an anti-Francis sentiment has been allowed to flourish in the American church.

Those factions have been hoping that the next Pope would be a “return to normalcy,” ditching all that liberal talk about caring for the poor and the marginalized and going back to the good old days where the Catholic political agenda was limited to a hardline opposition to abortion and LGBTQ+ rights. And, while it’s too soon to tell what course Leo will take, the fact that far-right Roman Catholics like Bannon and Loomer are yelping like whipped dogs over the choice can only be counted as a positive.