Hi, Brian Lairer here. Up next, Brian Lairor Weekend, three of our favorite segments from the week,

packaged together, for you to listen to on the weekend. So enjoy, and I'll see you back on the radio Monday at 10 a.m.

On WNYC and WNYC. Good morning, everyone. They now call him Pope Leo. His friends call him Bob.

He's now the major figure in a global religion. In college, he was a major in math at Villanova.

He comes from Chicago and admits to being a White Sox fan. Maybe that proves he's really for the downtrodden.

The White Sox last year became

the first team in baseball history to lose 121 games, officially the worst team ever. You all know

the farmer, Robert Prevost, now Pope Leo, the 14th, is the first American Pope. Politico has an

article, Leo is America's first pope. His worldview appears at odds

with America first. Steve Bannon called Leo the worst pick for MAGA Catholics. That's a quote

in that political article. Relevant to that, perhaps, here's a clip of Bishop Robert Barron from

Minnesota, who just last week

got appointed by President Trump to Trump's Commission on Religious Liberty on what it might say

about the condition of this country if there's an American Pope. Well, you know, Cardinal George

of Chicago of Happy Memory was one of my great mentors.

And he said, look, until America goes into political decline, there won't be an American Pope.

Whoa, Bishop Robert Barron of Minnesota.

Now, he said that before Pope Leo was announced, I wonder if he would have said it out loud if he thought they might actually pick an American Pope. For the record, though, we should say the new Pope's record on women in the church and LGBTQ issues is not all that progressive. We'll get into

that too. We'll talk to two guests in just a minute. But I also want to open up the phones right

away. One local contribution we can make to the coverage is to see if

anyone listening knows Pope Leo the 14th personally. Hello, Philadelphia, any Villanova

alum who went to school with him, class of 77, who might be listening, call in and say,

...