My favorite early fact about Pope Bob from Chicago comes from his talkative brother, John. Local reporters found John right away as the world met Pope Leo XIV. Fake news I may have repeated initially had the new pontiff as a Cubs fan. His bro set the record straight: Forever White Sox, much to the disappointment of Wrigley Field, who had already identified him as their man.
Besides clearing up diamond misconceptions, John shared childhood memories of his brother. "He took our mom's ironing board and put a tablecloth over it, and we had to go to Mass," John said. "He knew everything. He knew his prayers in Latin. He knew his prayers in English and he did that all the time and he took it totally serious." John explained that it was "not a game" to Rob, as he has referred to his brother. "He was dead serious about it."
For cradle Catholics, it's not an unfamiliar anecdote. Some kids used potato chips for the play ceremony, others used crackers. Some of us have made the mistake of giving a preprepared play Mass kit to a child. All is pious and lovely until the "priest" decides he's had enough and throws all the pretend consecrated hosts all over the basement, leading even the most conservative young women to wonder why Jesus put men in charge of his priesthood. Mercifully, God himself is actually the one calling the shots.
When we had the chance to hear from the first pope from the United States -- even if he's spent enough time out of the country to make him a more palatable choice for those who do not hail from our neck of the woods -- he assured us we are loved and that evil will not prevail. We need to know these things. God is love and all its implications -- this idea can make life bearable, and yet be so hard to believe.
We are living in a time when not only are we having contentious immigration debates, but we've also lost any sense of how many undocumented children are unaccounted for. Only God knows who among them are now in the hands of traffickers. Evil will not prevail -- it requires an act of faith to believe this. And we're going to trust an institution? One that's been known to have looked the other way in the face of child abuse?
Yes, because it is the Church of Jesus Christ, who calls us to conversion.
Pope Francis used to visit the same image of Mary and Jesus every time he left and returned to Rome. He did it from more than mere piety. He was bearing witness to the fact that everything requires acts of trust in God. Confidence that his mother is ours, too, carries us in ways we can never fully know.
Mary as the Immaculate Conception is the patroness of the United States and one of the most, if not the most, misunderstood aspects of Catholicism. The Immaculate Conception has nothing to do with Mary and Joseph never having had sex. It is about the sinless nature of Mary, from the moment of her conception. It signals that miracles happen and purity is possible, with God's grace. It's not mere child's play. The sacraments do actually sustain us.
In his first homily as pope, Leo XIV warned us of practical atheism. Even a daily Mass-goer can fall into it. Mass is not for play anymore. It's everything for those who believe we believe it; we will live it and invite others with the love we show like never before. The attention the world has fixed on the Catholic Church right now necessitates it.
(Kathryn Jean Lopez is senior fellow at the National Review Institute, editor-at-large of National Review magazine and author of the new book "A Year With the Mystics: Visionary Wisdom for Daily Living." She is also chair of Cardinal Dolan's pro-life commission in New York, and is on the board of the University of Mary. She can be contacted at klopez@nationalreview.com.)
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