Terence Sweeney
Appearances
Today, Explained
Chicago Pope
Pope Francis was a chemistry major as an undergrad, and Leo is a math major, which is great.
Today, Explained
Chicago Pope
I was both surprised and not surprised. I've been talking about him with friends and students for the past couple weeks. Yesterday in the morning, I popped into the office of Father Allen, an Augustinian on campus, and I said, are we going to have an Augustinian pope? And he said he didn't think so. And sure enough, a few hours later...
Today, Explained
Chicago Pope
I was watching the live stream, which apparently was lagging a little bit. And I found out who it was when I got a text message from my friend who said, you called it. But at the same time, I was very surprised. I was hopeful for him, but he's an American. And traditionally, that's, oh, it won't happen. I both kind of called it and was totally shocked.
Today, Explained
Chicago Pope
Yeah, Prevost is a kid who grew up in Chicago, went to Villanova University, and there really encountered or continued his encounter with the Augustinians. He had met Augustinians as a young man and joined the order. And I think maybe most notably, then proceeded to spend most of his life as a priest and then a bishop. in the missions in Peru. He could have gotten assigned to Villanova.
Today, Explained
Chicago Pope
He could have gotten assigned to a nice parish in a wealthier part of the United States. But instead, he went to Peru to be with the poor, to do work there, to do ministry there. And I think that's really, in many ways, the heart of who he is. You know, and you can think about, like, you know, I have a pretty cushy spot in Villanova. I have a house. It's, you know, comfortable.
Today, Explained
Chicago Pope
To suddenly shift gears to a totally new culture, learning the language fully in a place that maybe doesn't have as many perks as an American suburban parish might, I think that's a real sign of wanting to be with those on the margins of global power and economics. But I don't think we've had a pope in... centuries who has had this experience of working in the missions.
Today, Explained
Chicago Pope
We've had pastor popes, scholar popes, diplomat popes, but a pope who spent most of his life in a poor part of a country doing missionary work, I don't even know if we've ever had one.
Today, Explained
Chicago Pope
I think he, in some ways like Pope Francis, he kind of throws us off these spectrums. He took the name Leo, which in many ways is a kind of pretty traditional papal name. He's the 14th, right? He's not the first. He's kind of closely identifying with, I think, both the first Pope Leo, Pope St. Leo the Great, and Pope Leo the 13th, who are, you know, richly part of the tradition.
Today, Explained
Chicago Pope
Leo XIII is notable for his work on something called Catholic social thought, what the church brings to the questions of economics and justice and politics. And that has tended to be something that what we call progressive Catholics have really centered on. So I think in some ways it's unclear, which is actually kind of exciting.
Today, Explained
Chicago Pope
I think it's also notable that the language of his first address to the people in St. Peter's Square was richly tied in with Pope Francis. We still preserve
Today, Explained
Chicago Pope
And I think maybe there are some signs that he wants to carry on a lot of what Pope Francis did, but maybe make more connections, we might say, between the kind of Pope Francis side of the church and the Pope Benedict side.
Today, Explained
Chicago Pope
The Augustinians are a group of – they're called friars. They were founded in 1244. And they're grounded in a deep sense of I think maybe three principles, living in community, a really strong sense that wherever we go, we go together, deep sense of the heart. The Augustinians, if you ever see an icon of St. Augustine, he's often holding a heart.
Today, Explained
Chicago Pope
It's a sense that what we need to do is make that connection with other peoples in their heart and a really strong sense of a kind of call to the mission to go out. The original Augustinians often went into cities and places to be with where people were.
Today, Explained
Chicago Pope
And so I think that's important in this kind of tradition of the Augustinians, deeply heart-based, strong aspects of intellectual life, hence Villanova. But it's a really wonderful order and it's so exciting to see them get their moment in the spotlight.
Today, Explained
Chicago Pope
I think fundamentally one of the most important part of being an Augustinian is sometimes called the order of loves. It's this idea in many ways that our hearts need to grow. You know, our hearts can get very narrow. We can just fall in love only with ourselves. So finding a way to have our hearts expand, to make room for God, who is infinite.
Today, Explained
Chicago Pope
And when you make room for God, you make room for everyone. And that broadening of our hearts, particularly then not for everyone, but also particularly for those in need. And maybe one of the big tasks of his pontificate for Americans, for all kinds of Catholics, for all kinds of people is helping us broaden our hearts. I mean, I think notably, you know, we have a vice president who's Catholic.
Today, Explained
Chicago Pope
In some ways, you can think about what he said as, you know, having a lot of the right words, but getting the tune wrong. He scribed, it's true, one of the very important ideas that The Order of Loves teaches us that we rightly prioritize people who are closer to us. I have my fourth baby on the way. I spend a lot of time and invest a lot of energy and love in those children. They're my children.
Today, Explained
Chicago Pope
And so he's emphasizing that in that kind of sense. And Americans rightly prioritize Americans. And that's true. But he's kind of missing the point of the order of loves that it was supposed to expand and to go outward, whereas Vance seems to be talking about it as a way of retracting and going inward. And Pope Francis challenged him on this. And then notably, you know, the power of a retweet.
Today, Explained
Chicago Pope
Prevost retweeted an article in America magazine about challenging Vance on this. So I think a kind of early indication of that he as Pope is going to very much stand with a broadening of our loves.
Today, Explained
Chicago Pope
I think that he sees that his office as a bishop and now as Bishop of Rome is a prophetic one. It means that he has the task. I mean, he has to do this with He has to do this with a certain kind of diplomacy. He's also now a head of state, but he has a task of prophetic witness. That prophetic witness is going to speak about a lot of things. He's going to speak about the environment.
Today, Explained
Chicago Pope
He will definitely speak about immigration. He's going to speak about abortion. He's going to speak about a number of things. A lot of times that are going to throw American binaries off. I think we have, keep in mind, he's a profoundly pro-refugee and pro-life pope.
Today, Explained
Chicago Pope
And something I share with him, the sense that the love that we broaden out is meant to go particularly to the smallest and the most forgotten. And I think he sees that, and I think he's going to speak in that prophetic witness, as did the popes before him.
Today, Explained
Chicago Pope
Hi, I'm Terence Sweeney. I'm a professor in the Honors Program and Humanities Department at Villanova University, which is, of note, the only Augustinian university in the United States. And we now have a very famous alum, the new Pope, Pope Leo, graduate of 1977, and delightfully a math major, continuing a kind of math and chemistry thing.