The Michael Knowles Show - BREAKING: The Pope Has Been Chosen

Episode Date: May 8, 2025

Michael Knowles reacts to the historic announcement of the next head of the Catholic Church, breaking down who the new pope is, what his background reveals, and what this means for the future of the Catholic Church and global Christianity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Abamos Papam! We have a new Pope. This conclave was rather short, wrapped up quickly just today, and we have a new Pope who was previously known as Cardinal Francis Prevost and now has taken the regnal name Leo the 14th. You know I sometimes say, I hate to say I told you so. I actually called the papal name. And this was a name not merely that I was predicting, but that I was hoping for. I've said this for a long time, but then before as we were sort of waiting for the conclave to fully wrap up and for the new pope to walk out, I said, I asked on Twitter, I said, what regnal name are you hoping for? I'm hoping for Leo the 14th. And then it came out, announced the pope and the name in Latin, and it was Leo the 14th. This is a good sign. The reason Leo the 14th is a good sign is because Leo the 13th is one of the great popes. I have actually a beautiful rosary that was given by a friend to me from Leo the 13th's pontificate. He was wonderful. He's the first Pope that ever appeared on film, by the way, because he was very, very old right when moving pictures were coming out.

And so you can actually see a little film of Pope Leo blessing people. He is beloved by conservatives. John Paul II loved Leo the 13th. Leo the 13th was very strong against socialism. Leo the 13th was strong in tradition, orthodoxy, tomiscity. philosophy and theology. He also was a wonderful man to articulate Catholic social teaching. So when John Paul II was writing Chintesi Muzanos, he was writing about an encyclical

by Leo the 13th, which is called Rayrum Novorum and about these kind of new ideas and these new systems and politics. And in Chentesee Musanus, John Paul II was saying communism's terrible. You know, free markets are an efficient way to allocate resources. This is the Conservatives Pope, right? We really love this. Okay, so that's all a good sign. But I mentioned Catholic social teaching because

there are a lot of other signs about the new Pope that raised some eyebrows. He's from Chicago, and a priest friend of mine said that nothing good ever comes out of Chicago. He's joking a little bit, but he's from Chicago, some liberal prelates and

priests and lay people seem to be really excited about this. He mentioned Pope Francis a lot in his first speech to everyone, to the whole crowd in St. Peter's, talked a lot about Francis, talked a lot about the synodal way, sinotal way, being a way of inclusivity and listening and dialogue and many conservatives and traditional people in the church are a little worried about this, that this could water down doctrine, that this is ambiguous, this opens the gate to innovation. The synodal way is the way that Pope Francis was advocating. So that's all a little bit troubling. Some people are pointing out that the new Pope, Pope Leo the 14th, when he was Cardinal Prevost, wrote a piece going after J.D. Vance, specifically,

for articulating the Ordo Amoris, the hierarchy of love, the ordo Caritati's in the language of St. Thomas Aquinas. So maybe that's not a great sign. Some people are wondering, I guess I should mention, we're three minutes in, I haven't mentioned. American Pope ever, from the United States, that is. Second Latin American Pope, now that we've had two in a row. He's American, but he's also a dual citizen of Peru. Some are wondering, was this Pope picked in part to provide a counter political balance to Trump and to the turn against mass migration in the West? So again, we don't know what the Cardinals were thinking exactly in there. I'll leave on a little sign of hope, though. The name is a very hopeful sign.

The fact that he walked out in the formal vestments is a hopeful sign. The formal vestments, something that Pope Francis didn't really like. But the formal vestments are important. They're actually, I think, a sign of humility because you're recognizing it's not about the personality of the individual. But he is now, he's taking on a new name. He is the bishop of Rome. He is the vicar of Christ. He is subduing his personality and maybe some of his personal preferences to the magisterium, to orthodoxy to the church.

that's what one hopes for that kind of a signal. I think we saw that a lot with Pope Benedict. Also, he gave the blessing in Latin, which is a good sign for continuity. However, there is some cause for eyebrows being raised. There is some cause for concern about things that he has said on LGBT issues,

on there's some cause to wonder what he thinks about the traditional liturgy. Really, with this pick, who no one was guessing, he hasn't said very much. We don't really know. And people who tell you they know for sure exactly what he thinks and what he'll do are full of it. This is someone that no one saw coming that we don't know a lot about.

There are some good signs. There are some bad signs. And he's a young man, 69 years old, the Holy Father. He will most likely be Pope for a very, very long time. decades. And we will have to see how that pontificate unfolds. I have a lot more to say about some of the signs we're getting out of the new pope on LGBT issues, on the environment, on tradition, on the very structure of the church. I have a lot more to say about this, but I've gone overtime for my instant reaction. So if you want to hear more about what this new papacy means,

this new pontificate means, you've got to watch the show tomorrow. See you there on the Michael and old show.