Why I am Whitepilled About Leo XIV

I see some of my fellow Catholics blackpilling over the election of Robert Cardinal Prevost as Pope Leo XIV. Many have pointed to some ominous signs, such as his endorsement by Fr. James Martin. Nonetheless, I am whitepilled.

If the Church were merely a human institution, I would share these concerns. However, the Church is the body of Christ, and thus is both human and divine. Whatever motivations led the College of Cardinals to elect Leo, he alone is now the pope, and so he is the earthly head of the Church for probably around the next 20 years. God can lead him to do whatever needs to be done.

I think his choice of the name Leo is very prophetic. It is this choice which has whitepilled me. In particular, I think an American successor to Leo XIII is very fitting.

Leo XIII was the first pope to write to the United States of America. Three encyclicals of his are particularly important. The first, although not written directly to the United States, is his 1892 encyclical Quarto abeunte saeculo, commemorating the 400th anniversary of the voyage of Columbus. Whereas most people today think of Columbus as interested in money, Leo XIII points to this true motivation.

Columbus certainly had joined to the study of nature the study of religion, and had trained his mind on the teachings that well up from the most intimate depths of the Catholic faith. For this reason, when he learned from the lessons of astronomy and the record of the ancients, that there were great tracts of land lying towards the West, beyond the limits of the known world, lands hitherto explored by no man, he saw in spirit a mighty multitude, cloaked in miserable darkness, given over to evil rites, and the superstitious worship of vain gods. Miserable it is to live in a barbarous state and with savage manners: but more miserable to lack the knowledge of that which is highest, and to dwell in ignorance of the one true God. Considering these things, therefore, in his mind, he sought first of all to extend the Christian name and the benefits of Christian charity to the West, as is abundantly proved by the history of the whole undertaking. For when he first petitioned Ferdinand and Isabella, the Sovereigns of Spain, for fear lest they should be reluctant to encourage the undertaking, he clearly explained its object: “That their glory would grow to immortality, if they resolved to carry the name and doctrine of Jesus Christ into regions so distant.” (QAS 4)

Columbus’s mission was first and foremost about the spread of the gospel to the ends of the Earth. This is confirmed in Columbus’s writings, which (as Leo recounts) show he was a deeply pious man.

Indeed, another one of Columbus’s goals (although Leo does not discuss this one) was to raise money for a crusade to retake the Holy Land and restore the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in fulfillment of biblical prophecy about the end times. In order to return to where everything began though, he first had to go to the very edge of the world. Indeed, he passed beyond even what was known in his day.

Leo XIII’s next encyclical on America was Longinqua oceani in 1895. This was the first one specifically to the United States. Leo recounts the history of the founding of America, but begins by recalling Columbus.

For when America was, as yet, but a new-born babe, uttering in its cradle its first feeble cries, the Church took it to her bosom and motherly embrace. Columbus, as We have elsewhere expressly shown, sought, as the primary fruit of his voyages and labors, to open a pathway for the Christian faith into new lands and new seas. Keeping this thought constantly in view, his first solicitude, wherever he disembarked, was to plant upon the shore the sacred emblem of the cross. Wherefore, like as the Ark of Noe, surmounting the overflowing waters, bore the seed of Israel together with the remnants of the human race, even thus did the barks launched by Columbus upon the ocean carry into regions beyond the seas as well the germs of mighty States as the principles of the Catholic religion…

The names newly given to so many of your towns and rivers and mountains and lakes teach and clearly witness how deeply your beginnings were marked with the footprints of the Catholic Church. (LO 2-3)

The origins of America lie not in 1776, but the Catholic voyage of Columbus.

Nonetheless, Leo does go on to praise the American War of Independence as well.

Nor, perchance did the fact which We now recall take place without some design of divine Providence. Precisely at the epoch when the American colonies, having, with Catholic aid, achieved liberty and independence, coalesced into a constitutional Republic the ecclesiastical hierarchy was happily established amongst you; and at the very time when the popular suffrage placed the great Washington at the helm of the Republic, the first bishop was set by apostolic authority over the American Church. The well-known friendship and familiar intercourse which subsisted between these two men seems to be an evidence that the United States ought to be conjoined in concord and amity with the Catholic Church. And not without cause; for without morality the State cannot endure-a truth which that illustrious citizen of yours, whom We have just mentioned, with a keenness of insight worthy of his genius and statesmanship perceived and proclaimed. But the best and strongest support of morality is religion. (LO 4)

Contrary to the anti-American portrayal of Leo XIII by some trads, Leo saw the American victory against Britain as part of the work of divine providence. He notes both the natural virtue of George Washington as well as the aid given by the Catholic Church. The freedom given to the Church by America lead to its flourishing here, and in turn the grace given by the Church helps to perfect nature.

Leo goes on to recount the many ways in which the American Catholic church was flourishing, such as the foundation of the Catholic University of America in 1889. (My alma mater!) Leo goes on to prophecy the coming greatness of America.

All intelligent men are agreed, and We Ourselves have with pleasure intimated it above, that America seems destined for greater things. Now, it is Our wish that the Catholic Church should not only share in, but help to bring about, this prospective greatness. We deem it right and proper that she should, by availing herself of the opportunities daily presented to her, keep equal step with the Republic in the march of improvement, at the same time striving to the utmost, by her virtue and her institutions, to aid in the rapid growth of the States. (LO 13).

Leo does express some concerns about the Church in America. These would be repeated in his 1899 encyclical Testem benevolentiae nostrae, in which he dubbed these errors the heresy of “Americanism.” They can be best summed up as placing American ideology (whether left or right wing) above Catholic teaching.

Nonetheless, as can be see in Longinqua, Leo did not think that Americanism was fundamental to America. The true foundation of America can be seen in the Catholic evangelism of Columbus and the natural law principles of the founding, which I think scholars such as Adrian Vermeule have shown can be interpreted along classical natural law lines even if the founders were influenced by liberalism. Indeed, even the Christian nature of America due to Columbus’s voyage was made official US law in the 1892 Supreme Court case Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States. Leo even released Quarto abeunte saeculo exactly one day before Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States was argued! (And then Longinqua was released exactly three years later!)

Finally, one other important connection is that Leo XIII had a vision of Satan attempting to corrupt the Church. In response, Leo composed the famous Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel. Notably, Leo XIV was elected on May 8, the Feast of the Apparition of St. Michael the Archangel. This apparition happened during the pontificate of and was confirmed by Pope St. Gelasius I, who first outlined the teaching of the two swords and the submission of the temporal to the spiritual, a theme repeated frequently by Leo XIII, including in response to Americanism.

Given all of this, I think the election of an American as Leo XIV on May 8 is providential. Whatever motivations electors had, I believe God has raised up Leo XIV in his providence for an important purpose. He will have a long pontificate and most of the electors at the next conclave will have been by him. The future of the Church is Leonine. Let us remember that Bl. Pius IX was elected as a liberal. Leo XIV is a new man now, and I think he will live up to his namesakes. If the Catholic Church were a human institution I may be despairing right now, but it is not. It is the kingdom of God!

As Leo XIII said, God has in his providence raised up the United States of America and destined her for greatness. A holy American Pope is exactly what we need right now. May he encourage us to greatness yet rebuke us in our errors. May he lead our country to return to the true principles of the natural law, and may he lead us to accept the yoke of Christ so that nature might be perfected by grace.

Let us pray daily the St. Michael prayer for him, that we may have a new Pope St. Leo the Great.

Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle; be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray: and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God, cast into Hell Satan and all of the other evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.