Pope Leo XIV: The overlooked experiences that will shape his papacy

Jesuitical

America Media

Spirituality, Christianity, News, News Commentary, Religion & Spirituality

4.8 • 949 Ratings

🗓️ 23 May 2025

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On this week’s episode of “Jesuitical,” Ashley and Zac are joined by Mark Francis, C.S.V., who was a seminary classmate of Pope Leo (then known as Bob Prevost) at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago in the late 1970s. Father Mark is the provincial of the Chicago province of the Viatorian community, and he describes Pope Leo as a thoughtful and sensitive leader—even in their seminary days. Zac, Ashley, and Fr. Mark discuss: Pope Leo’s formation at C.T.U., where he learned alongside women and engaged with social justice issues How Pope Leo’s language skills, governing experience and global perspective will be key assets in his papacy Why efforts to put Pope Leo in a box are doomed to fail Links for further reading: Jesuitical Storytelling Retreat Podcast: Inside Pope Leo XIV’s first week Pope Leo XIV, in first U.S. appointment, names San Diego’s new bishop Pope Leo’s first audience: God’s love is generous, not calculating Pope Leo’s Chicago roots: a conversation with Cardinal Cupich Leo XIV: An American pope for the end of American empire? You can follow us on X and on Instagram @jesuiticalshow. You can find us on Facebook at facebook.com/groups/jesuitical. Please consider supporting Jesuitical by becoming a digital subscriber to America Media at americamagazine.org/subscribe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	For nearly 500 years, Jesuit schools, social programs, and parishes have uplifted and transformed communities around the world.
0:09.1	American Jesuits International continues this faith-driven mission, serving as a bridge between the United States and Jesuit programs in Latin America, Africa, and Asia.
0:20.5	Join us in building a brighter future for communities
0:23.0	on the margins. Donate, advocate, and pray with us at American Jesuits international.org.
0:45.0	Hello and welcome to Jesuitical, a podcast from American Media for Saints and Sinners.
0:49.6	You can join us each week for honest conversations about the Catholic Church and our world today,
0:54.0	sometimes over drinks. I'm Ashley McKinless, and I'm joined by Zach Davis. It's great to be with you,
0:55.0	Ashley, this time back in New York. That's right, back in New York and we still, Habamos, Popham here
0:59.9	too. We do, we do. It feels good to be back. That was a wild couple of weeks in Rome. Yeah. Yeah.
1:07.1	Has it started to sink in yet? It totally has. I think I had to come back to America to realize that we really did have an American Pope and like talking to my friends who are just like, is this for real?
1:20.6	Yeah.
1:21.6	And it is.
1:22.6	You know, it was like a fever dream a little bit over there.
1:25.6	They were long days.
1:26.6	There was an exciting time to be a
1:28.5	Catholic journalist, but I think we've got some exciting times ahead to be hosting a Catholic
1:33.2	podcast. So I'm thrilled to be doing that with you. And we have our first great episode of the
1:38.2	Pope Leo era coming up for you today. But first, you made a special drink for us. Yeah, it felt like
1:43.5	an appropriate time to a podcast. We'll have a drink.
1:47.0	So what I was trying to do with this was combine Popolio's birthplace with his current home.
1:54.0	We are missing Peru. So we'll have to maybe do a Pisco sour at a later date.
1:57.5	But this is a boulevardier, which is Campari and Vermuth, both of which are
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from America Media, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of America Media and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.