L.A. is a capital of Catholicism. It has direct and indirect ties to the new pope
One way or another, billowing white smoke was destined to be on my agenda yesterday.
I assumed I would only see it at Heritage Barbecue in San Juan Capistrano, the James Beard-nominated spot where brisket is gospel and banana pudding is a sacrament. But just as I was getting on the 5 South, news broke that white smoke had also emerged from the chimney at the Sistine Chapel — the traditional sign that the College of Cardinals had selected a new pope to lead the world's 1.4 billion Roman Catholics.
Man, God just won't let me have a day off!
Two days ago, Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost headed the Dicastery for Bishops, the arm of the Vatican charged with selecting bishops. History will now remember him as Pope Leo XIV, the first-ever American-born pontifex maximus.
Although Pope Leo is a Chicago native, his selection resonated across Los Angeles.
L.A. is one of the capitals of Catholicism in the United States and a place with direct and indirect ties to him. St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Ojai and Our Mother of Good Counsel in Los Feliz are run by the Augustinians, a religious order Pope Leo XIV once headed. His decades of ministry in Peru — first as an Augustinian missionary, then as bishop of the Diocese of Chiclayo — hits home for the tens of thousands of Peruvians who live in Southern California, especially those who hold an annual Catholic commemoration in Orange County for a sacred Peruvian painting of Jesus known as El Señor de los Milagros.
In his first speech, Pope Leo praised his predecessor, Pope Francis, for his 'brave' voice and reassured the crowd before him that 'without fear, united, hand in hand with God and among ourselves, we will go forward' in a rapidly changing world where 'evil will not prevail.'
The new pontifex maximus has much work ahead of him to wrangle the faithful into unity.
A well-funded conservative movement with ties to Southern California has labored to sunset the Church's decades-long commitment to social justice. More progressive members will continue to push the Vatican on the ordination of women and gay marriage, the latter which Pope Leo has spoken out against in the past. Meanwhile, the shadow of the clerical sex-abuse scandal, which has led to billions of dollars in payouts in the United States alone, continues to hang over the Vatican like a millstone around its neck.
I could've talked to visitors at Mission San Juan Capistrano, which is across the street from Heritage, about their thoughts on the new pope. But I had a longstanding, long-canceled lunch date with Anthony Rendon, the longtime speaker of the Assembly who's now a lecturer at the Jesuit-run Loyola Marymount — and God wasn't going to get in the way of that.
I asked Rendon what he thought about Leo XIV.
'Not sure if it's the right time for an American to bring people together,' he cracked, before thinking about it more. 'My sister just sent me something that says he's said good things about social justice, poverty and climate — that seems to be promising.'
I asked Rendon — whose home parish growing up was St. Bruno's in Whittier — what he would tell the new pope, American to American.
'It's great to have a leader from something more meaningful than a nation,' Rendon responded. 'Your constituency is international, but people will see you as an American, something that people neither need nor want. He's distinguished himself from Trump already, and that's good. The potential beauty of the church is in its scope and reach, and [Pope Leo] needs to embrace that.'
We packed up our leftovers. Walking past the mission on the way to my car, I saw a massive tour bus. Etched in chrome on the back was its brand: Prevost.
God, forever reminding that there's always work to be done.
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