An Omen?

When I learned that Robert Francis Prevost had been named the new pope, I was convinced I'd seen the name somewhere before. As my wife and I drove to mass yesterday morning, it was confirmed: we found ourselves right behind a Prevost bus on city streets that led us almost all the way to the parish. From Wikipedia,

Prevost . . . formally known as Prevost Car, is a Canadian manufacturer of touring coaches and bus shells for high-end motorhomes and specialty conversions. The company is a subsidiary of the Volvo Buses division of the Volvo Group.

Even before that, once I saw photos of Leo XIV, I decided I liked any pope who wears glasses, as Pius XII did in my childhood. In fact, at that time, both President Truman and the pope wore glasses. Something basic has been restored.

As I've begun to feel reassured, The Guardian is not so much:

After years of sympathetic and inclusive comments from Pope Francis, LGBTQ+ Catholics expressed concern on Thursday about hostile remarks made more than a decade ago by Father Robert Prevost, the new Pope Leo XIV, in which he condemned what he called the “homosexual lifestyle” and “the redefinition of marriage” as “at odds with the Gospel”.

In a 2012 address to the world synod of bishops, the man who now leads the church said that “Western mass media is extraordinarily effective in fostering within the general public enormous sympathy for beliefs and practices that are at odds with the Gospel – for example abortion, homosexual lifestyle, euthanasia”.

. . . The cleric also called for a “new evangelization to counter these mass media-produced distortions of religious and ethical reality”.

At Just the News, New pope, Leo XIV, in early days [of] papacy, appears to be winning over church's wary traditionalists

When the new pope appeared last week for the first time on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, the historic moment looked like a worst-case scenario for Catholic traditionalists.

A close adviser to predecessor Pope Francis, Cardinal Robert Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV, was seen as the “least American of the American cardinals – a figure deeply rooted in the Francis era. He was a critic of Vice-President JDVance and to the extent he was known, he was seen as a progressive, raising fears his papacy would continue the previous papacy’s trajectory.

. . . But instead, the first days of Pope Leo XIV’s papacy have – at least temporarily – assuaged traditionalists’ fears.

“Originally you had people saying conservatives’ heads are going to blow up, that this was Francis’ papacy, part two,” Thomas Williams, a conservative author and theologian, told Just the News. “I was worried, too.”

But that began to change, Williams said, as the new pope began to speak.

He told cardinals – who had come from around the world to Rome after Francis's death last month to decide among themselves who would be the next pope – to stay long and to give him counsel. The request was in sharp contrast to Francis’ often unilateral decision-making. He also prayed multiple times in Latin, a meaningful gesture for traditionalists.

In another development that could wind up an early problem for Leo to overcome, his brother has turned out to have a high social media profile:

The far-left media and their allies in the Democrat Party are in full panic mode after it was revealed that Lou Prevost, the straight-shooting Floridian brother of the newly elected American Pope Leo XIV, isn’t just Catholic — he’s unapologetically MAGA.

Prevost, a Port Charlotte, Florida native, proudly lives his life like many forgotten Americans—with faith, freedom, and the First Amendment.

But now, after his younger brother ascended to the papacy as Pope Leo XIV, the leftist media mob is frantically digging through Lou’s Facebook page looking for anything to “cancel” him over. And they think they found gold.

. . . On April 4, Prevost reposted a video of a younger Pelosi arguing for tariffs on China, exposing the radical 180-degree flip-flop that Pelosi and her Democrat cronies have pulled to appease the globalist agenda.

The original post didn’t hold back, “These fing liberals crying about tariffs is just unreal. Do they not know that there is a thing called video? Just listen to what this drunk c has to say in the mid 90s long before her husband had Grindr dates.”

Elsewhere,

Prevost told Newsmax in an interview over the weekend that his brother’s new role will force him to change some of his behavior.

“I’ve had to modify my activities and what I do, what I say, what I write in public spaces or say in public spaces. I’ve seen a couple already,” the Pope’s brother said. “I don’t want to get him in trouble or raise any grief or cause problems.”

The elder Prevost also confirmed that he has had political discussions with his brother in the past.

“When he was bishop or cardinal, we’d occasionally have discussions. He knows where I stand, I know where he stands, and now as Pope, there are going to be some differences there.”

This sounds like the Vatican will end up handling things the right way. I'm convinced Leo is off to a good start.