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| But Americans in Rome during conclaves always carry Old Glory about with them - just in case! |
The news that the new Pope comes from not just a military family but from a US Navy family really shouldn't have come as a surprise to anyone. His father served
during the Second World War. His brother
also served.
That no doubt is one of the reasons why he's been entrusted with trying to tidy up the mess of the Bergoglio papacy. As the Associated Press have put it,
after 12 sometimes turbulent years under Francis, a certain calm and reserve have returned to the papacy.
Leo seems eager above all to avoid polemics or making the papacy about himself, and wants instead to focus on Christ and peace.
That seems exactly what many Catholic faithful want, and may respond to what today's church needs.
"He's been very direct and forthright … but he's not doing spontaneous press hits," said Kevin Hughes, chair of theology and religious studies at Leo's alma mater, Villanova University. Leo has a different style than Francis, and that has brought relief to many, Hughes said in a telephone interview.
"Even those who really loved Pope Francis always kind of held their breath a little bit: You didn't know what was going to come out next or what he was going to do," Hughes said.
Leo has certainly gone out of his way in his first 100 days to try to heal divisions that deepened during Francis' pontificate, offering messages of unity and avoiding controversy at almost every turn.
Needless to say, Prevost and Bergoglio were elected by essentially the same people.* The difference is that Bergoglio was a disaster in every possible way - including those that matter to Uncle Sam. (The Vatican's coffers, natch - and of course the institution's capacity to project its "soft power" around the world to further western interests, e.g. peace for the sake of prosperity and free trade, and "human rights" and "democracy" in the face of the world's increasingly integrated networks of dodgy dictatorships and quasi-dictatorships!)
Needless to say, they weren't expecting Bergoglio to fuck up literally everything he turned his spiteful, vindictive little mind to - including opening up splits between Catholics over things like liturgy and sexuality, which must have seemed quite baffling to any standard US foreign policy wonk. (And of course they hadn't expected Benedict XVI at all - the Michael Gove-style wild card of the 2005 Conclave. Strange but true, but back in 2013 the narrative coming out of Langley was that the new Pope was going to have to clean up Ratzinger's mess. Be careful what you wish for!)
*And no, I still don't believe in nonsense about "the St Gallen Mafia". Austen Ivereigh is Deep State, working with the Americans. James Martin SJ was at university in Chicago. He and Robert Prevost are old friends.
