#pope stuff

"There was a part of Lomeli that rather hankered after Renaissance flummery, and privately he thought the late Pope had occasionally gone too far in his endless harping on about simplicity and humility. An excess of simplicity, after all, was just another form of osentation, and pride in one's humility a sin."

Translation: "Would it kill the Holy Father to be more flamboyant?"

Something that's in the source material too is how much Lomeli has nostalgia for his boyish romanticism of Catholic ceremonies and to the point of annoying his acquaintances with it.

They say his name is Pope Leo XIV, and that he is the first to come from the United States. But to us, the First Peoples of these lands — the ones whose stories stretch back to the rivers, stars, and stones — we do not judge leaders by their titles, but by their relationship to the truth.

And so, we look closely.

Before the white smoke rose in Rome, Robert Francis Prevost spent years in Peru, walking among Indigenous peoples in the Andes. He was a missionary there — a man of the Church bringing his teachings into communities that already had their own ways of praying, healing, and knowing the land. Some say he offered education and support. Others know the weight that always follows when priests arrive with crosses in one hand and promises in the other.

He is no stranger to our communities — not by name, but by role.

A missionary.

To many of our ancestors, that meant more than faith. It meant the dismantling of language, the replacing of ceremony, the burning of sacred objects.

But this Pope, like the one before him, speaks of bridges.

He says he wants to walk with the poor. To reach those forgotten.

He says he respects the work of Pope Francis, who came to our lands, apologized for the Church’s role in the genocide of residential schools, and asked for forgiveness — even if the Doctrine of Discovery still hangs like a ghost in Vatican vaults.

Pope Leo XIV brings with him the promise of continuity — to build on what was started.

But we do not need continuation. We need transformation.

We need a Pope who will not just visit our territories, but return what was taken.

We need more than apologies — we need the Vatican to rescind the very doctrines that declared our lands empty and our lives disposable.

We need our languages supported, our spiritual leaders respected, our sovereignty recognized — not just in words, but in deeds.

If Pope Leo is truly listening, then let him hear this:

We are still here.

We have our own ways.

We are not seeking salvation — we are seeking respect, justice, and the restoration of what was stolen in the name of Christ.

If he is to walk beside us, he must come not as a teacher, but as a guest.

Not as a savior, but as a learner.

Let the bridge he builds be made of truths finally spoken —

and foundations set not in Rome,

but in the lands where our ancestors still whisper to us through the trees.

Tapwe,

Kanipawit Maskwa

John Gonzalez

At the same time, he’s said national bishops conferences should be able to interpret the 2023 papal document authorizing certain kinds of blessings for people in non-ordinary states (which have been used to bless gay couples).

He does have a long history of working in poor communities and apparently is dedicated to poverty issues. His new papal name, Leo, is probably (I’m guessing; because no one has asked him yet in the press) in honor of Leo XIII, who took serious steps to align the Catholic Church with the working class and opposed unrestrained capitalism.