On Pope Leo XIV Nope. The Pope's Not Woke.

May 17, 2025

1. The Elevation of Pope Leo XIV: an Award and a Reward to United States Catholics

Catholics are in the honeymoon phase of this pontificate at present, with Pope Leo love overflowing. This will burn off. We should also consider that canonizations, papal funerals, conclaves, white smoke and the Habemus Papam moments, and the inauguration of popes have been money-makers at least since “Saint” Pope John Paul II put television cameras in the Vatican. These provoke frisson, catalyze interest in conversion, and push Catholic news out of view. They put every reporter on the Vatican beat on one Catholic story. Even non-Catholics become strangely enthralled by the Bells of Saint Mary Optics (As in: doesn’t everyone love the Catholics?) Pope Leo XIV is not (just) the first American pope. He is the first from the United States and the second from the Americas. I think his Latin American bona fides may matter almost as much as the nationality of his birth. Elevating a pope born in the wealthy, developed nation that is successfully winning a war to impose Roman Catholic religious teaching in a nation with an Establishment Clause makes sense. We in the United States overturned Roe v. Wade. We in the United States elected a fascist authoritarian who enjoyed the support of our nation’s wealthiest Catholics and Christians. The elevation of Robert Prevost to Peter’s Chair is both an award and a reward to the United States. The Curia hopes there will be more where that came from. They are wise enough to know that the fascism their brother bishops helped along in the United States could take several years to dislodge. But the Latin American aspect of Pope Leo XIV may figure in more heavily in regard to growing the global Roman Catholic Church, and in gathering back Latin Americans who have defected to Protestant Evangelical churches.

2. New Evangelization and the Latin American Church

The Roman Catholic Church has worried for a long time about the rise of Protestantism in Latin America. This concern is what led to the founding of the of the “New Evangelization” project. Early in his pontificate, Pope John Paul II installed television cameras in the Vatican. Catholic media experts had watched how Pat Robertson used satellites. A trained Polish thespian, Pope John Paul II knew how powerful the theater of Roman Catholicism could be and that this theater could not only sell the brand, but could do so throughout the globe. They recognized also the role televangelism had played a large part in the Protestants’ poaching of Latin Americans from “the (Roman Catholic) Church.”

This fear of losing Catholics likely drove decisions to allow Roman Catholic menaces like rapist priest and Legionaries of Christ founder Maciel Marcial Dellogado and Opus Dei to run amok. The Legionaries cult should have been shut down, post-Maciel Marcial. Opus Dei should have been stopped after the 34^th year of the reign of Francisco Franco. The scope of the Catholic clergy child rape and sex abuse crisis and cover up has not yet come to light. The saint pope John Paul II not only failed to arrest the growth of Opus Dei in Mexico and South America, but he also legitimized it and expanded the cult’s capacity to grow. John Paul II support for canonizing Opus Dei founder Josemaría Escrivá in 2002 helped this along.

The fear of losing Catholics extends, in the United States, to the Bishops’ concerns over Trump’s immigration policy. J.D. Vance was not all wrong when he implied / asked the following question in a January 20, 2025 CBS “Face the Nation” interview:”

I think the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops needs to look in the mirror a bit … are they worried about humanitarian concerns or are they actually worried about their bottom line?”

Even a broken clock.

3. New Evangelization and “Antipolarization,” Vatican Optics-speak for “Both Sides”

Roman Catholics as a whole often refuse to be governed by every rule promulgated by the magisterium (the teaching body of the Roman Catholic Church). Use of artificial birth control and remarriage after divorce are examples of this refusal to comply. But the clerical hierarchy of the Roman Catholic church in the United States, driven by an antipolarization ethos, having caved to the infiltration of Opus Dei in the church itself; failed to object publicly to Leonard Leo’s purchase of the Supreme Court of the United States. (Former Federalist Society Leonard Leo has very strong ties to Opus Dei. He has served on the board of. the Catholic Information Center. A large painting of his deceased child hangs in their offices.) They declined to oppose as well Roman Catholic involvement in about Project 2025 , which was sponsored by the Heritage Foundation and its Roman Catholic president Kevin Roberts.

In 2022, Donald Trump, the Leonard Leo court, and the Roman Catholic Bishops — with lots help from Catholic Media, even the erstwhile progressive outlets — overturned Roe v. Wade. Again, the election of an American pope was a prize.

The Vatican Optics around Pope Leo has been astounding. As a bit of a papacy nerd, I chuckled over the various meditations on the name Leo. The Leo before the current one was pro-worker, and elevated social justice teaching in the Roman Catholic Church, but twelve Leos came before him. For what are they famous? I mention this to note that latching on to low-hanging mythology fruit is a Vatican Optics mainstay.

While inclined to forgive the initial exuberance of Catholics in the early days of a new pontificate, I note that characterizing of this American pope as a “liberal” or a “Marxist” immediately struck me as foolish for so many reasons:

Supporting male supremacist ordination in 2025 is not “liberal.”

Supporting teaching that casts queer people as intrinsically disordered in 2025 is not “liberal.”

Supporting the use of religious donations to militate for laws that require even non-Catholics to be governed by Roman Catholic doctrine on reproductive issues is not “liberal.”

Collecting fortunes in donations without transparency is not liberal.

Supporting a clergy child rape cover-up is not “liberal.”

As a Catholic with a religious practice, I do understand why caring, conscientious Catholics yearn to see what is not there in a new pope. We always want that new pope to be better than he will be, and I hope this one turns out to be so as well. But it was evident from the moment of that the elevation of Robert Prevost was the result of a shrewd efforts more centered on strategy than spirituality.

In 2013, I wrote about the elevation of Jorge Bergoglio, pointing out how the shrinking of the Roman Catholic Church in Latin America figured into to the cardinals’ bold collective decision to elect a Latin American pope. I pointed to the ways in which Bergoglio’s public transportation-favoring every day guy and abuelo charm fit it to the papal analysis.

But the choice to make Prevost pope may have been more tactic than strategy, with the big idea being to bring big left brain energy to both “unifying” Roman Catholics and solidifying the Holy Roman Catholic empire. Hence Pope Leo’s strong focus on “new evangelization” pitches relating to “unity” and “mission.”

4. New Evangelization and Integralism

Saint Pope John Paul II made Opus Dei founder Josemaría Escrivá a saint in 2002. Twenty-three years later, this cult is no longer fringe in the American Roman Catholic Church. Vatican leadership has continued since the papacy of John Paul II to normalize the cult which has tentacles in numerous powerful Roman Catholic media outlets throughout the world, chief among them the global Catholic Eternal World Television Network (EWTN). EWTN grew rapidly in part because those leading the charge knew that the Roman Catholic Church could what the 700 Club did, only better. Roman Catholic television could deploy glorious Catholic art and architecture, the world’s nostalgia for Catholic sisters and priests, ostensibly well-educated and well-vested preachers and all its pomp for the purpose of couch potato conversions. That’s a joke, but the power to reach out to the home-bound, retirees, and pensioners, made it possible for the Roman Catholic hierarchy to collect donations in the manner Tammy Faye and Jim Bakker made famous. This outreach also showed promise in the context of a priest shortage. The institution could sell off real estate, invest in television studios and still fish for Christ-followers. During the Covid-19 Pandemic, televised Mass even offered “spiritual Communion.”

Other integralist and Opus Dei-shaped “New Evangelization” projects followed this model – Word on Fire, for example, and the Hallow Prayer App are two examples of profit-bearing Roman Catholic enterprises New Evangelization has helped along. (Both are sub-rosa Opus Dei adherent. New Evangelization is is quite compatible with much of Escrivá’s teaching. Vatican leadership collaborates congenially with Opus Dei which has tentacles in numerous powerful Roman Catholic businesses, universities, and media outlets throughout the world, chief among them, the global Catholic Eternal World Television Network (EWTN).

During the run-up to the 2024 United States Presidential Election, the New Evangelization catch word, “antipolarization” was popularized among Catholic influencers, flacks, academics, journalists and social media mavens. This term became a de facto synonym for “both sides” in the Trump vs. Democracy discourse.

5. Catholics Don’t Like to Admit It, But The United States Bishops Stumped in Stealth for Trump.

Through use of so-called “pro-life” activism and with help from key prelates (e.g. Timothy Dolan) the United States Bishops were able to push softly for Project 2025

and Trump without being caught violating the particular terms of laws governing their tax-exempt status. Most of these Bishops appear to have believed that they would be able to wrangle a deal, post election, that would offer protection for migrants, about whom even the most heartless and conservative prelates in the United States claim to care. Migrants who settle in Catholic parishes, in short time, bring a lot of money and Baptisms into their dioceses, and as I noted in Part 2. The institutional Roman Catholic Church needs an influx of migrants in order to grow “the Church” in the United States.

The scuffed-shoes, White Sox fan, new bobble-head souvenirs, and the pope as regular guy features are chum sprinkled on the surface of duc ad altum (put out into the deep) Vatican Optics. Since the day after Pope Leo XIV was chosen, “He’s woke” and “He’s a Marxist”-related press releases were rewritten and disseminated throughout every media outlet in the United States. Materially, Pope Leo’s perspectives aren’t all that different from those Pope Francis ventured. It is one thing to speak about justice and quite another to go to the mat for it.

That Pope Leo came out of the gate protesting U.S. involvement in Gaza and condemning the Russian war on Ukraine is good, but all a pope can probably do about this or any injustice really, is speak.

It’s great that Pope Leo dislikes Trump and has the courage to admit it. But neither did Pope Francis like Trump. More than half of Catholics in the United States who vote went on to vote for Trump. A genuine challenging of Trump — or Vance would constitute a form of biting the hands that gave the Catholic world Dobbs.

6. What Pope Leo Said Today: “Udienza ai Membri della Fondazione “Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice”, 17.05.2025”

As we wait to see how Pope Leo XIV will shape up, let’s look at today’s papal dispatch out of the Vatican, brief remarks on John Paul II’s commentary on Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical Rerum Novarum (which all Catholics should read!)

Pope Leo begins with an antipolarization theme:

The theme of this year’s Conference – “Overcoming Polarizations and Rebuilding Global Governance: The Ethical Foundations” – speaks to us of the deepest purpose of the Church’s social doctrine as a contribution to peace and dialogue in the service of building bridges of universal fraternity.

Pope Leo XIV goes on to discuss dialogue, encounter, listening, and “the Church’s social doctrine,” which relates to war, technology, poverty, labor rights et al.

You have the opportunity to show that the Church’s social doctrine, with its specific anthropological approach, seeks to encourage genuine engagement with social issues. It does not claim to possess a monopoly on truth, either in its analysis of problems or its proposal of concrete solutions.

“The Church’s social doctrine …does not claim to possess a monopoly on truth.” Here Pope Leo throws a bone to Catholics who discern. But notice how deft the rhetoric is, as he redefines doctrine:

Perhaps when we hear the word “doctrine,” we tend to think of a set of ideas belonging to a religion. The word itself makes us feel less disposed to reflect, call things into question or seek new alternatives.
In the case of the Church’s social doctrine, we need to make clear that the word “doctrine” has another, more positive meaning… ‘Doctrine’ can be a synonym of ‘science,’ ‘discipline’ and ‘knowledge.’

Doctrine can be all of those things.

Pope Leo exhibits some fancy epistemic footwork here. He argues that a doctrine is not the same as an opinion. Obviously they are not the same thing, but sometimes doctrine is opinion, and often Roman Catholic doctrine is opinion passed off as science. It helps to remember that the men in charge of the “the Church” tried Galileo for his belief in heliocentricity in the 17^th Century!

“Consequently,” Pope Leo writes, “a doctrine is not the same as an opinion, but is rather a common, collective and even multidisciplinary pursuit of truth…” Well… yes and no.

‘Indoctrination’ is immoral. It stifles critical judge”ment and undermines the sacred freedom of respect for conscience, even if erroneous. ‘Doctrine,’ on the other hand, as a serious, serene and rigorous discourse, aims to teach us primarily how to approach problems and, even more importantly, how to approach people.”

Set aside that absent indoctrination, the temporal Catholic Church would cease to exist. “Indoctrination” is immoral but “doctrine” is good/ a good? This passage is sophistic word salad! Moreover every second grade class in a Catholic school in the United States is undergoing indoctrination as I type this.

In the following passage, Pope Leo argues that “we must “cultivate our duty to train others in critical thinking.” But who are “we?”

In the context of the ongoing digital revolution, we must rediscover, emphasize and cultivate our duty to train others in critical thinking, countering temptations to the contrary, which can also be found in ecclesial circles.

This passage argues for support of workers and people at the margins. Unfortunately the ghost of the excoriation of protestors appears here in the form of condemnation of “loud voices” of individuals.

7. Some Thoughts on “New Evangelization” and the Promulgated Bigotries that Compromise the Moral Authority to Teach Equality

Take a look at this 2012 video footage relating to new evangelization:

Fascinating that the “presenter” in this program cites “the Gospel” as a source for homophobic teaching and opposition to abortion, given that there is nothing about either subject in the Gospels. Set aside that disgraced, defrocked Frank Pavone is pictured in the video as a noble crusader, which certainly casts a shadow over the project.

The narrator of this report appears to be a new evangelization zealot:

If the new evangelization is going to counter these mass media distortions of religious and ethical reality, successfully . pastors, preachers, teachers and catechists are going to have to become far more informed in a culture dominated by mass media.

That presenter and writer of this soft 2012 diatribe against gay people and reproductive rights activists was Robert Prevost, now Pope Leo.

Prevost has long been interested in using media for reaching Roman Catholic defectors, potential converts. The new evangelization zealots want to do this without making changes in that which sent them (us) fleeing the pews. A Baby Boomer, Father Prevost evidently liked the idea of using Facebook and Twitter to preach back then. Interesting to see the fervor for preaching by media always accompanied by the exhortation not to say the wrong thing.

Again, read about the saints and you will find no dearth of those “loud voices.” The new evangelization project is as much dedicated to compelling non-Catholics to comply with Catholic doctrine as to recruiting converts, reverts and vocations.

I’m reminded as I read about Pope Leo’s committment to the upcoming canonization of the teen-aged “saint of the internet” Carlo Acutis, that using social media to increase the fold, is a double-edged sword. The men in charge don’t want Catholics under protest using these means. Immature priests and seminarians showing their asses on social media is something of a current new evangelization-related problem they’ll have to figure out how to solve.

Father Prevost is relatively young. The Curia was smart to choose a media savvy cardinal to lead a church on the brink of Schism.

8. New Evangelization Fever and the Selective Promulgated Bigotries: Homophobia, Misogyny, Transphobia.

Some LGBTQ Catholic activists hold out hope that Prevost has evolved since 2012 in regard to his thoughts about queer Catholics, but Pope Leo’s remarks on May 8, 2025 suggest otherwise.

A pope can’t change doctrine on complementarity during his first week, but so far it seems that this particular pope will claim to preach on equality while supporting the practice of inequality in Christ’s name.

It is impossible to be preach in earnest against bigotry while practicing it. Claiming homophobia, transphobia and misogyny are not bigotry doesn’t make them not bigotry. A rose by any other name …

When, just last week, however, Pope Leo reaffirmed his commitment to promulgating bigotry that targets queer parents. He also took a swipe at those Catholics with “loud voices”:

He insisted that peace isn’t just the absence of conflict but a ‘gift’ that requires work, from an end to the production of weapons to choosing words carefully. ‘For words too, not only weapons, can wound and even kill.’
He said it was up to governments to build peaceful societies ‘above all by investing in the family, founded upon the stable union between a man and a woman.’

Read the statement issued by USCCB president Timothy Broglio, on Trump’s first Executive Orders:

Many of the issues President Trump addresses in his recent Executive Orders, along with what may be issued in the coming days, are matters on which the Church has much to offer. Some provisions contained in the Executive Orders, such as those focused on the treatment of immigrants and refugees, foreign aid, expansion of the death penalty, and the environment, are deeply troubling and will have negative consequences, many of which will harm the most vulnerable among us. Other provisions in the Executive Orders can be seen in a more positive light, such as recognizing the truth about each human person as male or female.

Words can kill. Words can also save.

Harming the vulnerable among us is a sin. That includes harming queer and trans people, many of whom will suffer, some of whom will die — many of whom have suffered and died — of Catholic doctrine.

Words can also save.

This Church cannot pretend to be for justice while funding leaders who embrace bigotry in Christ’s name.

9. Why a pope from the United States?

In western nations, from whence most of the money the Roman Church collects for missions comes, the church is shrinking. But the Roman Catholic Church in the United States is still relatively salubrious. People in the pews contribute great wealth to their dioceses and support missions overseas. The traditional Roman Catholic Church in the United States is thriving.

Catholics in the pews are tolerating the criminality of the episcopacy in the United States well. This includes the clergy abuse crisis and cover-up. Even Catholics who self-identify as progressive tolerate with stunning docility homophobic, transphobic, and misogynist teaching. From the standpoint of Rome, the war on abortion is being won in the United States. The Roman Catholic Church is global, but keeping United States Catholics in the pews tithing, expanding the Roman Catholic Church, and absorbing the institution’s embrace of bigotry, are financial imperatives for the Vatican. So too is cajoling the Trump to break from his Xenophobic, White Supremacist immigration policy for “the Church.”

Pope Leo XIV may not like Trump but as pope he is well-positioned to cut deals with him.

Robert Provost is an American who worked for most of his life in Peru as a missionary. Catholic missionaries often have a surplus of propensity to overlook the transgressions of the institutional Roman Catholic Church, as they focus on the supposed “greater good” and the magnitude of their role in saving souls. Missionaries are often seen as gods and saints in their missions and love their communities ardently but imperiously. Pope Leo XIV seems not to be one of those. That’s a pretty good sign.

MMS