I Hope I'm Wrong About Pope Leo XIV

Now that Cardinal Prevost has been elected as Pope Leo XIV, we can pray fervently for him, so that he will obey the will of the Father during his papacy. We can continue to be at peace with Christ even through the storms of recent years in the Church. We don’t need to fool ourselves though into thinking this papacy has high hopes from the beginning. I hope I’m wrong about this initial view on this papacy. I hope Pope Leo XIV proves my initial doubts and concerns about him are completely wrong.

In 2013, with the election of Pope Francis, most people had hope that he would be a good and holy Pope who would lead the Catholic Church with faithfulness to Christ. This didn’t happen, and we lived through perhaps the worst papacy in the history of the Catholic Church. Throughout the dozen years of his papacy, Pope Francis refused to teach the Catholic faith with clarity and consistency. He also tolerated and promoted idol worship of Pach*m*m* inside the Vatican and even inside St. Peter’s itself. He informally taught heresy such as God willing a plurality of religions. His papacy was marked with a viciousness towards faithful Catholics, while surrounding himself with some of the worst predators in the Church. Through all of this, our new Pope said nothing. He never stood up to oppose any of it. At no point did he declare the truth of the Gospel against these evils.

WHAT WE’RE NOT GOING TO DO

When Pope Francis was elected, and for several years after that, people tried to give him the benefit of the doubt about his many wrong or false actions and words. We bent ourselves into pretzels to pretend there could be some excuse for why he did and said what he did. We pretended that the Pope was fooled by an atheist journalist even though the Pope had known him many times and kept giving him interviews. We pretended that there had to be translation issues. We pretended that there was some ignorance on the part of Pope Francis. We pretended that he was being led around by evil men, while he was an unwitting accomplice in evil. We’re not going to do that this time.

Pope Leo XIV is not ignorant and he is well informed of everyone in the Vatican. He is not swindled by the enemies inside the Catholic Church. He knows who they are. He saw the evil of the last papacy and he did nothing and said nothing. He was even promoted to the highest offices by Pope Francis during these times. He was in full agreement with Pope Francis and we need to accept that. All the enemies of Christ inside the Church are wildly excited over this coming papacy. We need to accept that fact.

WHAT WE ARE GOING TO DO

The first thing we are going to do is to pray for the Pope. We are going to pray that Pope Leo XIV is the Pope that we need rather than the Pope that we deserve. We have received a dozen years of the Pope we deserve, and hopefully if we repent, the Lord will give us the Pope we need now.

The second thing we are going to do is assess the actions of the Pope soberly and without mental gymnastics. As mentioned above, the Pope is not an ignorant rube being fooled by anyone. His actions are his own. So we are going to soberly examine those actions. If the Pope does something good, we will praise him. If he does something bad, we will call him out and confront him. We are not going to give him the benefit of the doubt as we did with Pope Francis. That good will has been spent.

The third thing we are going to do is to continue growing in our own personal holiness through all of this. The Catholic Church has grown during times of persecution and this is a great opportunity for even more growth. We must be even more active in our parishes. We must be good stewards of our time, talent and treasure to improve the Church in our small area of the world.

IN SUMMARY

All of the enemies of God inside the Catholic Church are ecstatic about the election of Pope Leo XIV. That is a horrifying sign which we should not ignore. It is up to the Pope to prove his fidelity to Christ and the Catholic faith. It is not incumbent upon the faithful to create imaginary and impossible scenarios where his actions could possibly be the result of ignorance or mistake. He has the guidance of the Holy Spirit always available to him, if he will only listen to Him. Pope Leo XIV must follow God rather than his own will. Let us pray fervently for Pope Leo XIV and the Catholic Church!

PRAYER TO ST. MICHAEL BY POPE LEO XIII (1884)

Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray;

and do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the Divine Power of God, cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl throughout the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen