Nah, nah, nah, nah, Hey, Hey Hey Goodbye Homo Pope Frank... driving in from the bullpen in the new Impala model from Fanning Chevrolet is Pope Bob.
A White Sox fan in the Vatican
By Frank Friday
Anyone from Chicago can tell you, the Cubs always get the celebrities -- from Ronald Reagan to Bill Murray. At one point, Al Capone even tried to buy the team.
While it’s true that Richard Nixon grew up in California rooting for the White Sox, when the Dodgers moved in, he had to switch allegiances. Even worse, another President, the Lyin’ Hawaiian, liked to wear the current Sox hip-hop black cap, but it turns out, he may never have been to a game at what he calls “Cominskey Park” and in 2010 didn’t know the name of a single player.
Now comes the amazing news from the brother that the new Pope is a genuine White Sox fan, as are all the kindly old school priests and sisters south of I-55, on into Indiana and Michigan. That’s a huge point in his favor and it appears he frequently voted in the Republican primaries in Illinois (that state does not have specific party registrations).
Growing up in the south suburbs of Chicago in the 1960s, in a very Catholic household, he would have had a ringside seat to the great battles in the American Church. Back of the Yards was where the leftist Saul Alinksy co-opted a big chunk of the Catholic community outreach, thanks to the liberal Bishop Bernard Sheil. But this area, and to the west, is also where the conservative Augustinian priest Francis X. Lawlor had his blue-collar political base.
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The Augustinians are still active around Chicago, and new Pope Leo has grown up with that order since attending their high school seminary and then their flagship university, Villanova.
Generally, Augustinians are very humble priests, often called the Friar Hermits, who quietly run schools and missions. Pope Leo XIV spent over 20 years in Peru, which is the mission target for Midwest Augustinians.
Apparently, Pope Leo XIV has no hostility to the Latin Mass, while Pope Francis hated it. His public comments also indicate he has no interest in pushing the homosexual agenda or ordaining women. These are all things conservative Catholics care about and which the Pope controls.
On things he doesn’t control -- immigration, global warming, American politics, etc. -- I expect a lot of rhetoric to warm the cockles of the international media. That’s a compromise most Catholics can readily accept.
The choice of the papal name is also intriguing. Pope Leo XIII, the last Leo, was one of the greatest Popes of all time. Liberals would like to claim this Pope for his support of workers and the right to organize. But Leo XIII despised socialism and was the force behind the Church’s modern support of free markets and Thomist natural law theory as well as the center/right Christian Democratic political movements in the 20th Century.
I'd prefer Walt 'No Neck' Williams as Pope - EWS
New Pope Leo, it should be noted, was a math major in college. He’ll need to dust off his calculator. The Vatican finances were always crooked and are now an absolute ruin. Pope Francis brought in conservative George Cardinal Pell to try to clean it up years ago. Instead, Pell’s enemies in the Vatican and Australia hit him with a frame-up that sent him to prison for a while before he was vindicated.
Pell wrote a brutal report, the Demos, detailing the myriad problems with Francis’ Vatican before he passed away in 2023.
Pope Leo will have a huge job ahead, digging out from under the mess that Francis is leaving him. I suspect in the end that Pope Leo XIV will have little time to generate new controversies. Just keeping the lights on will consume all his time.
Rome may be in even worse shape than what has become of the once solid ball club on the South Side. And for the same reasons -- bad managers, no farm system, no stars, lack of money, and an utterly clueless top leadership. The new Pope certainly has the modest personality and proven intelligence to do a better job than his predecessor. Like a lot of people, I will pray he does.
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Pope Bartman the First has a nice ring to it.
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