MORNING GLORY: Pope Leo XIV (and President Trump)
It has been widely reported that Pope Leo will be using part of his vacation to begin drafting his first encyclical. These are important teaching documents for the Roman Catholic Church and sometimes they teach that the current pontiff can be very right, very wrong, very smart or simply not very good at this particular part of his duties. Most Catholics have high hopes for this first missive. Still, who doesn't need editors to help with my suggestions?
The new pope has been very measured, calm and careful in the months since his election on May 8. It has to be the most dizzying of ascents and upon arrival as head of the Vatican, a confrontation with the broadest range of problems for any religious leader, and most political ones, on the planet. So Pope Leo taking things slowly and cautiously is a relief.
An encyclical is a big deal for practicing Catholics who assume encyclicals are intended to be read, studied, and the occasion of a prayer for discernment. The audience is assumed to be primarily Catholics everywhere, but Pope Leo has to be aware that the secular press —from supportive to hostile— will also be looking the first one over very carefully.
Here are some suggestions from an American Catholic his age which means we share a lot of culture, from network television, movies and music to the transition that followed Vatican II. (If Leo had to learn the Mass in Latin in order to be an altar boy only to have that chore tossed out as soon as it was accomplished and replaced with the English script, he will have perfect pitch for millions of Catholic seniors —young and old seniors alike.)
When he does begin to do interviews, if he chooses long form sit-downs with respectful journalists, the pope will go a long way to making the promise of his papacy real. Those interviews should focus on the encyclical if one issues before he does his sit-downs with reporters at least a few of whom, American Catholics hope, will be American. Curiosity about a new pope is always acute. It is off the charts about the first American pope.
So will curiosity be about the encyclical, which is a reason to hope that it is (1) written in clear, concise English and then translated by the Vatican's best Latin scholars into the official language of the Church and (2) relatively short.
If the pope writes in English, not only will he be using his native tongue and thus be as certain as he can be that he's conveying his meaning, it will be a huge hit with the English-speaking peoples of the world, especially the Americans, especially Midwesterners, and most especially Chicagoland Catholics. Some inside baseball phrases for Americans would be a nice touch.
The more concise the encyclical, the less susceptible it is to misleading excerpts and agenda-driven reporting. Even with the reach of the internet, hundreds of millions of people who have not read it will be told by others what it says and what it means.
As with discussions of Supreme Court decisions, the second-hand reports are usually at best incomplete and at worst intentionally misleading. In this new age of AI-driven deep fakes, don't be surprised if subtlety-altered encyclicals instantly appear. The Vatican press office might want to assure that the real deal has arrows pointing to it. Simultaneous distribution to many of the world's major outlets would be another guardrail.
So in English and relatively concise. I hope as well that it is not overtly political in the sense of the left-right spectrum that dominates most of the West where Leo's letter will not be subject to suppression. If he encourages religious liberty, great! If he speaks to the need to care for life from conception to natural death, great! If he wants to encourage the flock to read and reflect on the Beatitudes, great!
If he wants to encourage Catholics to renew their commitment to the confessional, bravo! (The decline in the practice of this Catholic sacrament is pronounced, but its revival would have to begin with the direction to bishops and priests to make it a priority above all but the other Sacraments.
Pope Leo XIV could even begin with an appeal for vocations to the religious life which are needed everywhere, but especially in his homeland.
But pray he has already decided he's not going to do immigration and especially that he's not going to disparage capitalism or America as his predecessor was fond of intimating.
Catholics believe the Church is divinely ordained and can never fail. But it can and frequently does stumble. The road back from a divided and disillusioned Church in America begins with finding the good in the United States and praising it. Now that would be a welcome change from the past dozen years.
And please, nothing about President Trump. Read the room Pope Leo, please. You don't need to single out the president. Lots of Catholic commentators like to do so. You don't have to. At all.
Hugh Hewitt is a Fox News contributor, and host of "The Hugh Hewitt Show," heard weekdays from 3 pm to 6 pm ET on the Salem Radio Network, and simulcast on Salem News Channel. Hugh drives America home on the East Coast and to lunch on the West Coast on over 400 affiliates nationwide, and on all the streaming platforms where SNC can be seen. He is a frequent guest on the Fox News Channel's news roundtable hosted by Bret Baier weekdays at 6pm ET. A son of Ohio and a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Michigan Law School, Hewitt has been a Professor of Law at Chapman University's Fowler School of Law since 1996 where he teaches Constitutional Law. Hewitt launched his eponymous radio show from Los Angeles in 1990. Hewitt has frequently appeared on every major national news television network, hosted television shows for PBS and MSNBC, written for every major American paper, has authored a dozen books and moderated a score of Republican candidate debates, most recently the November 2023 Republican presidential debate in Miami and four Republican presidential debates in the 2015-16 cycle. Hewitt focuses his radio show and his column on the Constitution, national security, American politics and the Cleveland Browns and Guardians. Hewitt has interviewed tens of thousands of guests from Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Republican Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump over his 40 years in broadcast, and this column previews the lead story that will drive his radio/ TV show today.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Los Angeles Times
5 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
Two SoCal bishops respond to ICE raids, but in different ways
Two of Southern California's largest Roman Catholic dioceses have criticized the federal government over raids and roundups of undocumented immigrants over the last few weeks. The Los Angeles Archdiocese and San Bernardino Diocese have responded differently in tone and action. Yet both have asked the government to show restraint and empathy toward migrants. Here is a look at how Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez and Bishop Alberto Rojas of San Bernardino have responded to a historic moment that upended the lives of countless congregants in immigrant communities they serve. Combined, roughly 5 million people claim to be Catholics in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and Diocese of San Bernardino, which includes Los Angeles, Riverside, Santa Barbara, San Bernardino and Ventura counties. About 58% of people living in the United States who were born abroad consider themselves Christian, according to findings from the Pew Research Center released this year. Of those, 30% identified as Catholics, the largest share of any denomination. In the Los Angeles and Riverside metro areas, 28% of all Christians consider themselves Catholic, the highest of any denomination by several points, according to Pew. Rojas told his diocese of roughly 1 million parishioners on July 8 that they can stay home on Sundays to avoid Mass because of concerns over area federal immigration sweeps. Rojas wrote in the decree that many churchgoers have shared 'fears of attending Mass due to potential immigration enforcement action' and that 'such fear constitutes a grave inconvenience that may impede the spiritual good of the faithful.' The dispensation was announced after multiple people were arrested at or near diocese churches on June 20, including a man at Our Lady of Lourdes in Montclair, according to the National Catholic Register. ICE officials disputed any allegation of targeting churches. 'The accusation that ICE entered a church to make an arrest [is] FALSE,' wrote Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin in an email to The Times earlier this month. 'The illegal alien chose to pull into the church parking lot [and] officers then safely made the arrest.' Rojas wrote on Facebook that he respected and appreciated law enforcement's role in keeping 'communities safe from violent criminals,' but added that 'authorities are now seizing brothers and sisters indiscriminately, without respect for their right to due process and their dignity as children of God.' The Archdiocese of Los Angeles announced plans to bolster delivery of hot meals, groceries and prescription medicines to parishioners living in fear of deportation amid ongoing enforcement raids. Immigrants targeted by raids are 'good, hard-working men and women' who are 'making important contributions to our economy,' Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez said in a statement. 'Now they are afraid to go to work or be seen in public for fear that they will get arrested and be deported,' he said. Yannina Diaz, a spokesperson for the archdiocese, said she was unaware of any arrests made on Archdiocese of Los Angeles property. She also said Gomez was not considering issuing a dispensation for its congregants yet. In an open letter, Gomez wrote that he was 'deeply disturbed' by the detentions and called on the government to reform the immigration process. We'll continue to follow how the church reacts and adapts to the Trump administration's immigration policy. Crime, courts and policing Immigration policy and raids Los Angeles fires and rebuilding Educational policy Have a great weekend, from the Essential California team Jim Rainey, staff writerDiamy Wang, homepage internIzzy Nunes, audience internKevinisha Walker, multiplatform editorAndrew J. Campa, reporterKarim Doumar, head of newsletters How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@ Check our top stories, topics and the latest articles on
WIRED
8 hours ago
- WIRED
60 Italian Mayors Want to Be the Unlikely Solution to Self-Driving Cars in Europe
A network of local officials in Italy want to turn their cities into laboratories for the vehicles of tomorrow in the hope of catching up with the US and China. Photo-Illustration: WIRED Staff; Getty Images The future of self-driving cars in Italy it seems needs not only technology but also (possibly above all) political backing. The good news, then, is that more than 60 mayors in Italy have decided to take the field for the cars of the future. On July 14, in the hall of the MEET Digital Culture Center in Milan, Pierfrancesco Maran, a member of the European Parliament for the Italian Democratic Party, launched the Autonomous Driving: Italy in the Front Row initiative, which has backing from administrators from all over the country. Among the signatories to the scheme are Milan mayor Beppe Sala and Turin mayor Stefano Lo Russo, as well as dozens of other mayors of medium-size and small cities. The goal, apparently, is to make Italy the European leader in autonomous vehicles, turning municipal territories into open-air laboratories for testing the automotive technologies of the near future. Catching Up With the USA and China The initiative stems from the realization that Europe lags dramatically behind the United States and China. While Waymo fulfills more than 250,000 paid rides a week in the four US cities where it operates, and China has established 20 pilot cities with more than 74 million miles of accumulated testing, Europe is limited to 400 highly fragmented micro-projects—of which less than half are nationwide. The gap is not only geographical. In the United States and China, private individuals and companies invest billions, while in Europe, public funds are dispersed over initiatives that are too small. Europe's regulatory fragmentation, with 27 different national frameworks (including differing traffic laws, for example), also makes it impossible to exploit any advantage of the region being a single continental market. A Waymo self-driving vehicle in San administrators see autonomous driving as a practical solution to everyday urban problems, such as last-mile urban logistics and reducing traffic and pollution in city centers. Extending the right to mobility for the elderly, disabled, and children is also a priority shared by many administrators in the country, as is the use of autonomous vehicles to better connect suburban areas poorly served by public transportation. But the path to implementation in the region turns out to be more complex than initially imagined, with challenges that go far beyond the technical aspects. For example, the collective mayors' enthusiasm clashes with an inadequate regulatory framework. Italy's new highway code, approved in December 2024, with focuses on new rules for electric scooters, zero tolerance for those driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs, and phone use while driving, has missed an opportunity to bring Italy in line with modern times and positions the country as one of "the last of the old century instead of the first of the new," according to Maran. Insurance companies still do not cover self-driving cars for public service in Italy, while European approval procedures severely limit the number of vehicles a manufacturer can put on the market. Bureaucracy slows any experimentation: Even to test a simple delivery robot seems to require "going to Mars," said Milan's councillor for mobility Arianna Censi. European Strategy The discussion at the Milan conference brought out different visions of the future of autonomous driving in Europe. Giorgio Gori, another European Parliament member for the Italian Democratic Party, stated that Europe risks repeating the same mistakes made with cloud computing and artificial intelligence, areas where the continent has lagged behind due to regulatory fragmentation and a lack of large corporate players. "We're not good at manufacturing, but from a utilization and grounding perspective we would be great," Gori said, suggesting that perhaps Europe should focus on applying technologies developed elsewhere rather than trying to reign in global competition. Benedetta Scuderi, a European Parliament member for the environmentally focused Italian Europa Verde party, rejects the idea of surrendering to the technological supremacy of the United States and China, and insisted on the need to find spaces where Europe can excel, identifying strategic niches in line with the continent's sustainability goals. Baidu's driverless car service in Jiaxing, China. CFOTO/Getty Images "We need to think in both research and production where autonomous driving can create added value for Europe and Italy," he said, pointing out that non-European players are not necessarily looking in the direction of more efficient and less impactful mobility. The European strategy, according to Scuderi, must focus on development models that favor vehicle sharing over private ownership, countering the US trend toward individual car ownership. In the Driver's Seat The Italian mayors' call represents a bet on the future of European mobility that must come to terms with complex geopolitical realities. And the time challenge is crucial: As each month of delay widens the gap with competitors investing billions, Europe must decide whether to focus on technological self-sufficiency or on the smart integration of solutions developed elsewhere. Waymo operates more than 1,500 vehicles in four US cities, while Volkswagen Group's Moia operating in Hamburg and Munich in Germany (as well as in Austin, Texas) has only 100 autonomous vehicles for testing purposes. Success will depend on turning the policy debate into concrete actions that involve public and private investment, simplify regulations, and convince citizens that autonomous driving is an opportunity and not a threat. The 60 Italian mayors who have signed on to this autonomous driving initiative show that this technology has some political backing. However, it should be noted that there are just under 8,000 Italian municipalities. Maran feels that what is needed is the kind of quantum leap only a coordinated European strategy can guarantee. 'This is not about technology that will arrive tomorrow,' he said, "but about a revolution already underway that Europe cannot afford to suffer passively." This story originally appeared on WIRED Italia and has been translated from Italian.
Washington Post
12 hours ago
- Washington Post
Pope Leo reflects on migrants and refugees as ‘messengers of hope'
Pope Leo XIV urged the public to see migrants and refugees as 'messengers of hope' on Friday, as the Trump administration focuses on mass deportation efforts in the pontiff's former home country. In a letter, Leo wrote that the 'widespread tendency to look after the interests of limited communities' poses a serious threat to the 'pursuit of the common good and global solidarity for the benefit of our entire human family.'
