How could MAGA hate Pope Leo? The man can fix a broken truck | Opinion
As I read with millions of others about the life and times of Robert Francis Prevost, the most telling fact is this:
The man can fix a broken truck.
Yes, he has degrees in mathematics and theology. He can speak fluent Spanish and Italian in addition to his native English.
Yes, he became leader of one of the most important orders in Catholicism, the Augustinians. He sat among “the princes of the church” as a Cardinal at Vatican City and now wears the papal vestments as leader of 1.4 billion Catholics.
But the man can also pop the hood on an old pickup and bring a dead engine back to life.
Robert Prevost dedicated his life to the poor
We know this from the people of Peru, who watched him drive a white pickup to remote Andean villages delivering food and blankets to the rural poor.
“He has no problem fixing a broken-down truck until it runs,” said Janinna Sesa, who saw this firsthand when she worked for the church’s Caritas nonprofit.
She watched Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV, wade through mud to bring supplies to people in need, she told the Associated Press. And as a visitor to these tiny hamlets, he slept on the floor on a thin mattress and ate their “peasant” meals of potatoes, cheese and sweet corn, she said.
It spoke to his resourcefulness and determination. His job was to serve the people of Peru. If a broken truck got in the way of that mission, then he needed to stick his hands in grease.
I point this out only to raise doubts about the reining theory that the Catholic conclave chose Leo XIV as a counterweight to an erratic United States and its president.
This theory rests on the notion that the world revolves around Donald Trump.
That’s what MAGA believes.
MAGA believes Catholics chose the anti-Trump
Rome chose an American pope who is “anti-Trump, anti-MAGA, pro-open borders and a total Marxist, like Pope Francis,” Laura Loomer, a sometimes adviser to Trump, said.
Another, Steve Bannon, said he believes Leo is there as pope to try to thwart Trump’s agenda, particularly on illegal immigration.
That’s not merely a MAGA view. The mainstream press proclaims it, too.
“The election of an exceptionally cosmopolitan American smacks of outright defiance of Mr. Trump and his aggressive nationalism,” The Economist magazine reports.
Leo XIV has been a defender of immigrants and critical of some Trump immigration policies, but that is not unusual for Catholic clerics.
Some of you will recall that even Arizona’s Bishop Thomas Olmsted, a favorite of conservative Catholics, opposed our state’s controversial immigration law, Senate Bill 1070, and joined with other Catholic authorities to defend Latin American immigrants.
Pope Leo is not combative. He sees children of God
The church is an important institution in our society not because it informs public policy but because it challenges us to expand our vision.
Politicians look at border crossers and urge us to see a problem. Clerics look at border crossers and urge us to see children of God.
I find it hard to believe that the Cardinals in Rome made their decision on the pope because they thought Cardinal Prevost would take a switch to Donald Trump and his policies.
Opinion: Pope Francis had a deep interest in Arizona's immigrants
It’s not his style.
“He is remarkably calm,” the English cardinal Vincent Nichols told The Times newspaper. “He’s got a gentle manner. He’s very calm. He’s quite clear in his mind.”
That doesn’t make him weak, Nichols said.
“He can be decisive,” he said, but it’s done to build bridges, not burn them. “I’ve seen him resolve difficulties in a way that didn’t leave enemies behind him.”
Cardinals did something exceptional, not political
The essence of Robert Prevost is found in the South American country of Peru where he served many roles over 35 years, including as bishop of Chiclayo, a city of some 600,000 people in the country’s northwest.
“Monseñor Roberto,” as he was known “wasn’t a man of the desk but a man who worked with the people,” a church member who knew him then, Mariana Quiróz, told The New York Times. “People were suffering so much. Many were left homeless. And the father was there.”
He was constantly traveling to remote areas to engage with the faithful. “He was very, very warm with the people,” Rev. Elmer Uchofen, a priest in Chiclayo told The Times.
Sometimes he carried sacks of rice to them, he said. “He always had a low profile. Very patient, very smiling.”
Consequently, the Peruvian people do not see Leo a product of the United States and his hometown Chicago. “He is more Peruvian than American,” said Sister Margarita Flores, who knew him then.
The world sees otherwise. It wants to see Leo XIV not just as a religious figure, but as a political statement.
Peru is telling us to open our eyes to a man who is decent and good and unselfish.
“He had a lot of holiness. We always saw it,” Chiclayo church volunteer Juana Loren, 60, told The New York Times. “We used to joke and say: He is either going to become a saint or a pope.”
It’s not hard to understand this story, Peruvians say. The Catholic Church did something exceptional for our world when they picked Leo to be their pope.
They chose a righteous man.
Phil Boas is an editorial columnist with The Arizona Republic. Email him at phil.boas@arizonarepublic.com.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Trump doesn't have an enemy in Pope Leo, nor an ally | Opinion
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