On the day that Pope Leo XIV was elected to the seat of St. Peter, Sunshine Cathedral’s own Bishops Durrell and Robert released a statement offering blessings and hopes for the new pontiff. The statement read in part:
“Cardinal Robert Francis took the name Leo XIV. The new Pope is a Canon Lawyer, an Augustinian, a former church leader in Peru, and the first pope ever from the United States.
The last pope, Leo, led the Church from 1878 to 1903. His advocacy of workers’ rights and his opposition to autocracy as well as to laissez-faire capitalism earned him the unofficial title, “The Workers’ Pope.” He believed that pastoral ministry was meant to be a vehicle for social justice.
The bishops of Sunshine Cathedral hope that Leo XIV shares this commitment to justice.”
The statement also pointed out that in his blessing to the world from his balcony, “Pope Leo invoked the aid and intercessions of Ss. Peter and Paul (faithful ministers who often did not see eye to eye), St. John the Baptizer (who risked great peril in speaking truth to power), and the Blessed Lady, St. Mary (who stood with Jesus until his last breath, and then is said to have led the church in Jerusalem for a while).
The bishops of Sunshine Cathedral hope that these invocations signal a desire to work ecumenically, a commitment to stand up to despotic leaders no matter the country they are from, and a willingness to stand firm in difficult times and offer hope in the wake of heartache.”
Of course, our bishops called on the Bishop of Rome to be welcoming of LGBTQ people. In their statement, they said, “The bishops of Sunshine Cathedral further hope that Pope Leo will be at least as open to the LGBTQ+ community as Pope Francis was and, if he might dare to be even more welcoming and inclusive, we would certainly praise his efforts.”
It’s worth mentioning that Leo is the 4th consecutive non-Italian pope and the second non-European. Moreover, while he is American-born, in 2015 he became a Peruvian citizen, making him the first pope from the U.S. and the second from South America.
Let’s see what the Queer God Squad thinks about these early days of a new pontificate.
