It's a good day in America
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There is an American Pope.
Father Robert Francis Prevost of Chicago, Illinois, has taken the name Leo XIV, in honor of his predecessor, who is responsible for modern Catholic social justice teachings.
The name “Leo” is also synonymous with times of great crisis, and this is surely that.
The Catholic Church has faced the rising evil of the Trump regime head on. It has given the American people a global shepherd to remind them of some things.
Pope Leo is from the Land of Lincoln. He will represent a continuation of Pope Benedict Francis’ papacy of love and service to all of humanity.
The decision by the cardinals to elevate an American is epochal in the same way that the decision to elevate a Pole named Karol Józef Wojtyla was in 1979.
How was it that tyranny ended in Poland?
If the complicated and multifaceted question demanded a singular answer, what would it be?
What quality was found?
What was remembered?
What was stronger than tyranny and the Iron Curtain?
A 59-year-old man returned to his country in June 1979. He came to the exact spot in the photo below, and stood in front of over one million Polish people who were yearning to be free at the beginning of the solidarity moment. He said something more powerful than a thousand tanks:
He was movie star-handsome, charismatic, and deeply feared by the forces of dictatorship and oppression. Why did they fear this man of peace?
What worried them about the man history would remember as Pope John Paul II?
It was this simple declaration:
BE NOT AFRAID.
There is a rising tide of fear and immorality in America.
The richest man in the world has launched a campaign to impose suffering on the poorest children in the world by slashing the budget of the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
Here is how Bill Gates put it:
The picture of the world’s richest man killing the world’s poorest children is not a pretty one.
Freedom and human dignity are inexorably linked, which is why democracy is moral and dictatorships are not.
Democracies recognize the innate dignity of the human being, and protect the rights of the individual over the power of the state. They also hold that basic rights come from a higher power beyond the whims of men.
America is moral because America is free.
Should freedom collapse in America then a moral collapse will precede it.
The American Pope will help us see America again, and awaken a spirit that lies dormant in this land.
We have entered a season of anniversaries in America that are leading up to the 250th anniversary of the birth of the United States. July 4, 1776, marks a before and after moment in the annals of human civilization.
The great experiment is being tested again, and a profoundly important reinforcement has risen.
The older I get, the more I am inclined to let go and accept the possibility that things happen for a reason, and are guided by a powerful and incomprehensible force that becomes clearer only in hindsight.
The drama between Donald Trump, the American fascist, and Leo, the American Pope, will be history that is written about for hundreds of years.
Morality vs. immorality and right vs. wrong are fully engaged in America. Donald Trump has already lost his war of aggression against American values and the Constitution — even if he doesn’t know it yet.
There is an American Pope. He will make the American president look small as the fly that landed on Mike Pence’s head during the 2020 vice presidential debate.
It’s a good day in America.
The outcome of the fight ahead is not in doubt.
The good guys are going to win.
Join Ryan Busse and me at 12 pm ET today for a Substack Live
Join me for my next live video with Ryan Busse, who writes The Montana Dispatch, TODAY at 12 pm ET. Ryan was a 2024 Democratic candidate for Montana governor. We’ll be talking about public lands and their raping by the Trump regime.
Hope to see you there!
When I first saw that it was an American Pope, my reaction was that MAGA would say another example of America ruling the world, changing the names of oceans, and conducting itself ugly.
But it is not that way. MAGA already hates him. The Fraud Christians hating a Real Christian. I get it now.
Great column today, thanks.
So good to have positive news in these times