MAY122025

When Pope Leo XIV was elected the people of Chicago were elated. He is from here. He roots for the White Sox. He likes deep dish pizza. He is one of us. The cardinals from the United States held a news conference after the election and they dismissed the idea of the significance of an American being elected pope. As one of the cardinals observed: Pope Leo is a citizen of the world. Although born in the US he has worked most of his life in Peru where he is a citizen. When superior of the Augustinians he travelled the world. For the past few years he has lived in Rome. But the tendency to create a tribal identity seems woven into the human psyche. You hear things like, “Is he one of our own.” We see at the amazement of the people in the Acts of the Apostles when the Gentiles started to become Christians. “God has then granted life-giving repentance to the Gentiles too.” What that first generation had to learn, and we are still learning today, is that the voice of the Good Shepherd calls all of us regardless of nation or tongue into one flock as the children of God.