𝗪𝗛𝗜𝗟𝗘 𝟭.𝟰 𝗕𝗜𝗟𝗟𝗜𝗢𝗡 𝗖𝗔𝗧𝗛𝗢𝗟𝗜𝗖𝗦 𝗪𝗘𝗟𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗘 𝗣𝗢𝗣𝗘 𝗟𝗘𝗢 𝗫𝗜𝗩, 𝗠𝗔𝗚𝗔 𝗔𝗗𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗘𝗡𝗧 𝗖𝗔𝗟𝗟𝗦 𝗛𝗜𝗠 "𝗔 𝗪𝗢𝗞𝗘, 𝗠𝗔𝗥𝗫𝗜𝗦𝗧 𝗣𝗢𝗣𝗘"

 

Saint Peters Square, Rome, Italy

When I've described myself as a backsliding agnostic, it only means that I don't know things true believers know and haven't experienced what they've experienced.  Succinctly put, I can't prove there is a god or isn't one.

                                       

Bishop of Matamoros, Eugenio Andres Lira Rugarcia, in the hall of the City Commission building

Yet, I prefer my religious leaders compassionate and kind and certainly the Bishop of Matamoros, Eugenio Andres Lira Rugarcia, comes across that way.  Kenneth Copeland, the televangelist who was my neighbor on Eagle Mountain Lake six or seven years, did not and I don't say that because I was never invited to his mansion, cathedral, motorcycle track or boat dock.

                                      

Pope Leo XIV

Anyway, we'll get to know this new "American" pope, Robert Francis Prevost, just designated Pole Leo XIV, just as we became acquainted with Pope Francis.  While the news has emphasized his birth in Chicago and service in Peru, I'm more intrigued that his maternal grandparents were Black creoles from Louisiana.  

                                                                      

Donald Trump and Laura Loomer During the 2024 Campaign

MAGA true believer Laura Loomer, who clung to Donald Trump in the 2024 campaign, describes the spiritual leader as a "woke, Marxist Pope."  That sounds like a snap judgement based on a preconceived notion.  In 1960, during the Kennedy/Nixon campaign, some of my school friends told me, that if Kennedy, a Catholic, got elected he'd be taking orders from the pope.  I didn't believe that anymore than I believed Nixon would be under orders from leaders of the Quaker faith.

Kennedy-Nixon Debate, 1960