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First American pope elected and will be known as Pope Leo XIV

cnn.com

591–600 of 1001 posts

Re: First American pope elected and will be known as Pope Leo XIV

#591

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is such petty semantics, most of the world understands that is is a shortening of The United States of America. In fact most everyone uses some version of “Americans” [1]. 96% of the world refers to America as a continent and I’m sure 96% refer to the US as America too. It’s all about context. I don’t think anyone is genuinely confused most of the time. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demonyms_for_the_United…

You are an editor on CNN. A person from the US has been elected as the Pope, you have to come up with a title for this news piece. You have these two options: A) First American Pope elected ... B) First US Pope elected ... A is ambiguous because "American" means a country for 4% of the world and a continent for 96% of the world. Also, the pope that just died happened to be from Argentina, and also happened to be the…

"American" means from the country USA for most of the world.

Ask foreign speakers if you don't believe it.

Re: First American pope elected and will be known as Pope Leo XIV

#592
post #134
post #97

> "Cardinal George of Chicago, of happy memory, was one of my great mentors, and he said: 'Look, until America goes into political decline, there won't be an American pope.' And his point was, if America is kind of running the world politically, culturally, economically, they don't want America running the world religiously. So, I think there's some truth to that, that we're such a superpower and so dominant, they do…

For what it’s worth, I was just reading that Leo wasn’t seen as “completely” American due to his many years in Peru — he’s even a citizen. Take that as you will.

[flagged]

Re: First American pope elected and will be known as Pope Leo XIV

#593

The prevailing wisdom has been proven wrong on this occasion. He is very much a continuation of Francis's school of thought in spite of the "fat Pope thin Pope" wisdom, and he is an American who has been elected Pope, which was almost unthinkable because of America's economic, political, and mass media domination of the western world. Very unexpected

This (continuing Francis' school of thought) should be rather predictable - Pope Francis appointed the majority of voting cardinals, so it's not a stretch to think this is generally his intended outcome.

Re: First American pope elected and will be known as Pope Leo XIV

#594
post #434

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Bible agrees with your musing as it says bishops are to be be married with kids. Peter (who the Catholics claim as the first Pope) was married as the Bible says Jesus healed his mother-in-law. 1 Timothy 3:1-7 [1] This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. [2] A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospital…

I would suggest you read the original Greek if you want to hang your textual arguments on specific words, and then also realize that the Latin translation which is canonical for Catholics is also a translation. A lot is lost in both directions.

That’s an appeal to ignorance. You can look up the Greek yourself (I’ll link a basic translation below). There’s just not much room to mistranslate “one wife”, or “husband”.

The official Catholic translation agrees with KJV as does Thomas Aquinas in his commentary. In fact, I don’t know that there’s ANY disagreement about this translation anywhere.

The clear issue is that the Catholic Church believes (and states) that their ecclesiastical authority supersedes even the Bible on not only this minor topic, but more important ones too.

https://biblehub.com/text/1_timothy/3-2.htm

Re: First American pope elected and will be known as Pope Leo XIV

#595
post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For what it’s worth, I was just reading that Leo wasn’t seen as “completely” American due to his many years in Peru — he’s even a citizen. Take that as you will.

[flagged]

Technically 2.

Re: First American pope elected and will be known as Pope Leo XIV

#596

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure but most of the world, when they say America or American, they mean the USA, otherwise they'll say "the Americas" or "North American" or "South American" or refer to a specific country. It's just a reality that a lot of people don't want to face, but you have to be pragmatic in life for the most part.

>Sure but most of the world, when they say America or American, they mean the USA. Nope. People from the US really need to get out of that bubble.

> People from the US really need to get out of that bubble.

Maybe you live in a smaller bubble.

India: "Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, a 69-year-old American, has been elected as Pope Leo XIV, making history as the first American to head the Roman Catholic Church." https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/europe/10-facts-ab...

Denmark: "For første gang i verdenshistorien er paven amerikansk." https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/udland/fra-missionaer-i-peru-til-n...

Brazil: "Papa Leão XIV é americano e tem cidadania peruana" https://www.estadao.com.br/brasil/papa-leao-xiv-e-americano-...

Nigeria: "America’s Robert Francis Prevost announced as new pope" https://www.vanguardngr.com/2025/05/breaking-americas-robert...

Slovakia: "Lev XIV. je prvý Američan na pápežskom stolci." https://svet.sme.sk/c/23488126/novy-papez-lev-xiv-profil.htm...

Re: First American pope elected and will be known as Pope Leo XIV

#597

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If he's on the same positions as Pope Francis but he's American, then this is a great move by the Catholic Church. Many Americans will naturally root for "their" Pope, and this will lead them away from the positions of Trump and the Evangelicals.

I doubt so, Christian Republicans conveniently ignore the parts of the Bible that directly contradict their ideology. How else could J.D. Vance consider himself a Catholic when his actions so directly go against the teachings of Christ? More generally, I think religion doesn't really inform your political views. It can certainly reinforce them post-hoc, but it certainly isn't the basis of one's morality.

Well then, if organised religion has no sway on people's beliefs and actions, we can as well close the whole show and send home all those priests, bishops and cardinals, imams and mullahs, rabbis and brahmins, etc. etc.

The Pope, like most leaders, is not someone who has absolute power on what others should think and do; but is someone who can exercise a force of attraction in a specific direction. And he is very likely to have a stronger ability to attract and influence Americans because of his origins.

Re: First American pope elected and will be known as Pope Leo XIV

#598
post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They picked an American, who actually lived and worked in Peru, and not archbishop of New York that Trump suggested.

If they want someone who can effectively oppose Trump, why would they pick someone he suggested?

What did any pope actually do to oppose anybody?

Re: First American pope elected and will be known as Pope Leo XIV

#600

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apparently heads of foreign states are exempt.

What's your source on that, at least in the case when the head of the foreign state also remains a US citizen? There's also the interesting question of whether he will remain a US citizen after all, or whether taking the office of pope will count as him relinquishing US citizenship under INA §349(a)(4): https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/visa-law0/L... In the latter case, the tax question would not aris…

There is no way in hell they'd revoke his American citizenship. American Catholics would be up in arms.
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