The New Pope Might Have a Costco Membership Pope Leo XIV is almost certainly the first Vicar of Christ to have fond memories of the ’85 Bears.
The newly elected pontiff, Pope Leo XIV, is seen for the first time from the Vatican balcony on May 8, 2025, in Vatican City. (Christopher Furlong via Getty Images)
On March 2, 1848, Lewis Charles Levin, an irascible Pennsylvania congressman, took to the floor of the House of Representatives to warn his colleagues of an encroaching menace: the papacy. With a flair that would not have disgraced the pulpit of a frontier revivalist, he denounced “the paid agents of the Jesuits” and shuddered theatrically at the news that Pope Pius IX—then newly elected and, disconcertingly, liberal—had won the admiration of European reformers. The pope, Levin feared, was a kind of robed Napoleon, plotting to conquer America with candles and holy water. “Has he cast off his claims to infallibility?” he thundered. “Has he flung aside his triple crown? Has he become a republican? Does he acknowledge the inherent equality of mankind?” But Levin remained hopeful. “The Papal flag,” Levin boasted, “has never been known to wave in an American port. No American vessel has received the visit of a Pope.” It is amusing to speculate about what Levin and his successors, from the antebellum Know-Nothing Party and Thomas Nast to Bob Jones Sr. and the Ku Klux Klan, would have made of the election of Robert Cardinal Prevost as Pope Leo XIV...
Become a paid subscriber Get access to our comments section, special columns like TGIF and Things Worth Remembering, tickets in advance to our live events, and more. UPGRADE TODAY |
